Farewell session of UP Assembly ends on noisy note

Lucknow: There was no bonhomie, no customary farewell speeches, no exchange of phone numbers and no thank you either.

The brief last session of the 16th Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday began and ended with protests and slogan shouting.

The BJP was in the Well of the House demanding the resignation of parliamentary affairs minister Azam Khan, who was recently indicted by the Supreme Court for his statements on the Bulandshahr rape case.

The Congress followed into the Well demanding discussion on demonetisation which was causing widespread discontent among the people.

The BSP legislators came wearing caps with slogans against the Akhilesh government and RLD members joined in with their charter of demands for farmers.

Pandemonium prevailed in the House as soon as the session began and the entire question hour was washed out.

Senior ministers who had been sacked by the chief minister, including Shivpal Singh Yadav, Om Prakash Singh, Narad Rai and Shadab Fatima, did not attend the proceedings of the state Assembly and visions among SP MLAs were palpable as most of them kept to themselves and did not interact with the senior ministers.

Amidst noisy scenes, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav presented the government’s supplementary demands of grants amounting to Rs 1683.11 crores.

The government also sought a vote-on-account for the financial year 2017-2018. The government has made provision of Rs 1,000 for Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway Project while a sum of Rs 79 crores has been allocated for state highways.

The government has earmarked Rs 5 crores for the Yash Bharti awards, Rs 100 crores for the UP Information department and Rs 6 crores has been set aside for Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur.

Leader of opposition Gayacharan Dinkar later told reporters that the government did not mean business and had convened the session only to get the supplementary budget passed.
 
BJP legislature party leader Suresh Khanna said that after being pulled up by the apex court, Mohd Azam Khan has lost the moral right to sit in the state assembly.
 
“The state government does not want the opposition to raise issues concerning the people ad neither is it keen on any discussion. The last session is a mere formality and traditions are also being set aside”, he said.