Himachal Assembly session may be convened in September: CM Jai Ram Thakur

The next session of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly may be convened in September, chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said on Thursday.

Talking to mediapersons after the oath taking ceremony of three new ministers at the Raj Bhawan here, Thakur said if the effect of COVID-19 pandemic reduces in the state, the government would consider convening the Assembly session in September.

Those inducted as cabinet ministers are Paonta Sahib MLA Sukh Ram Chaudhary, Nurpur MLA Rakesh Pathania and Ghumarwin MLA Rajinder Garg.

Governor Bandaru Dattatreya administered the oath of office to the new ministers at a function at the Raj Bhawan. All COVID-19 protocols were followed at the event. While Chaudhary and Garg took oath in Hindi, Pathania took oath in English.

Responding to a question, the chief minister said that the budget session was adjourned midway on March 23 when there were only two coronavirus cases in the state.

Now there are over 2,400 total cases and around 1,050 active cases in the state, so all this has to be considered, he added.

As per norms, the Assembly session has to be convened at least once in six months, he said, adding that the budget session had been adjourned on March 23, so the next session should be convened before September 23.

Normally the monsoon session of the state Assembly is convened after August 15. We will consider convening it in September if the cases reduce, he added.

Over 20 MLAs from both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress had submitted a memorandum to Speaker Vipin Singh Parmar in May demanding a special assembly session to discuss the COVID-19 situation.

At that time, Parmar told PTI that around 25-30 BJP and Congress MLAs had submitted a written request to convene the special Assembly session to discuss the virus situation in the state.

Later in June, the lone CPI(M) MLA Rakesh Singha also demanded convening of a special session of the Assembly for discussing the handling of COVID-19 in the state.

Singha said the special Assembly session should be called to discuss whether or not health infrastructure has been adequately strengthened in the state to properly handle COVID-19.

On March 23, the state Assembly was adjourned sine die midway amid COVID-19 scare while the budget session was supposed to continue till April 1. The remaining seven sittings were suspended unanimously in view of coronavirus outbreak.

(Photo Credit: PTI)