News Analysis India

Tag: UP assembly

  • Women MLAs to get a day fixed to raise issues in Assembly

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: In a novel and unique initiative, UP Assembly has decided to give a prominent voice to women lawmakers by keeping a day exclusively for them to raise the issues concerning their respective constituencies during the upcoming Monsoon Session which will take off on September 19.

    The decision to this effect was taken by Assembly Speaker Satish Mahan, who, in acknowledgment of the thoughts of women MLAs, decided to fix a day for them when only women lawmakers would put forth their thoughts on the floor of the house during the session.

    Mahana’s decision came through after an interaction with MLAs during which the women lawmakers rued over not getting adequate opportunity to speak in the house.

    The UP assembly has a strength of 403 members of which only 47 are women. 

    “All women members will be given an opportunity to speak on the issues they want to after the question hour on the specified day,” Mahana said.

    The women MLAs, cutting across the party lines, welcomed the Speakers’ initiative calling it a much-awaited gesture to empower the women MLAs by ensuring that their voice was heard without getting sunk in the din of the house.

    BJP’s Rae Bareli MLA Aditi Singh, who earlier represented Congress Party in Assembly, said that the initiative would ensure that women MLAs were heard patiently by their male counterparts otherwise women members were not able to speak. “This is certainly a new idea and altogether a new approach,” she stated.

    The only women MLA of the Congress party in the house, Aradhana  Mishra “Mona” also welcomed the move saying the initiative would prove to be a trendsetter for the rest of the country. She said that in a patriarchal society where women face serious issues on a number of professional and personal fronts including politics, the decision to save a day for women legislators was a great idea and it would help the women lawmakers put forth their thoughts without being interrupted. The Congress leader was one among those women MLAs who had urged thespeaker to make such a provision.

    “We had requested speaker Satish Mahana for a separate time slot. Many of us may not be good orators. A special day or time slot for women members will definitely help us,” said the Congress leader who represents Rampur Khas in UP assembly.

    Similarly, Ragini Sonkar, SP’s Machhlishahr MLA, said that despite being half of the population, the women constituted only 11.6 per cent of the total number of elected representatives in UP Assembly. As a woman MLA belonging to opposition party, I don’t get many opportunities to speak in the House. I am grateful to the Speaker for saving a day for us as the move a welcome  step towards women empowerment,” said Sonkar, an ophthalmologist who completed her MD from AIIMS-New Delhi in 2021.

    LUCKNOW: In a novel and unique initiative, UP Assembly has decided to give a prominent voice to women lawmakers by keeping a day exclusively for them to raise the issues concerning their respective constituencies during the upcoming Monsoon Session which will take off on September 19.

    The decision to this effect was taken by Assembly Speaker Satish Mahan, who, in acknowledgment of the thoughts of women MLAs, decided to fix a day for them when only women lawmakers would put forth their thoughts on the floor of the house during the session.

    Mahana’s decision came through after an interaction with MLAs during which the women lawmakers rued over not getting adequate opportunity to speak in the house.

    The UP assembly has a strength of 403 members of which only 47 are women. 

    “All women members will be given an opportunity to speak on the issues they want to after the question hour on the specified day,” Mahana said.

    The women MLAs, cutting across the party lines, welcomed the Speakers’ initiative calling it a much-awaited gesture to empower the women MLAs by ensuring that their voice was heard without getting sunk in the din of the house.

    BJP’s Rae Bareli MLA Aditi Singh, who earlier represented Congress Party in Assembly, said that the initiative would ensure that women MLAs were heard patiently by their male counterparts otherwise women members were not able to speak. “This is certainly a new idea and altogether a new approach,” she stated.

    The only women MLA of the Congress party in the house, Aradhana  Mishra “Mona” also welcomed the move saying the initiative would prove to be a trendsetter for the rest of the country. She said that in a patriarchal society where women face serious issues on a number of professional and personal fronts including politics, the decision to save a day for women legislators was a great idea and it would help the women lawmakers put forth their thoughts without being interrupted. The Congress leader was one among those women MLAs who had urged the
    speaker to make such a provision.

    “We had requested speaker Satish Mahana for a separate time slot. Many of us may not be good orators. A special day or time slot for women members will definitely help us,” said the Congress leader who represents Rampur Khas in UP assembly.

    Similarly, Ragini Sonkar, SP’s Machhlishahr MLA, said that despite being half of the population, the women constituted only 11.6 per cent of the total number of elected representatives in UP Assembly. As a woman MLA belonging to opposition party, I don’t get many opportunities to speak in the House. I am grateful to the Speaker for saving a day for us as the move a welcome  step towards women empowerment,” said Sonkar, an ophthalmologist who completed her MD from AIIMS-New Delhi in 2021.

  • Miffed by SP MLAs’ behaviour in UP Assembly, party ally Rajbhar says it’s against House decorum

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Taking a line contrary to the strategy of the Samajwadi Party, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief OP Rajbhar, one of the main allies of Akhilesh Yadav, on Monday opposed the behaviour of SP MLAs who resorted to unabated sloganeering and protests inside the House during the joint address of the state Governor on the inaugural day of the first session of the 18th assembly, reconstituted recently.

    The SP MLAs protested in the well of the House during the entire joint address of the Governor Ananadiben Patel. Condemning the behavior of the SP legislators, the SBSP chief said his MLAs did not take part in the protests as he found it against the decorum during the Governor’s address. “This is unbecoming of them (SP MLAs). This culture is not good. My MLAs did not take part in the unruly protests as we do not believe in such practices,” he said.

    The SBSP chief said that the tradition of staging a protest during the Governor’s address should be stopped. “We have stopped it from our side. I have been watching this for the last five years and this is the sixth year and the same behaviour is goingon. I don’t like this. We want to bring about a change in this trend and we have taken the initiative in our own way,” said Rajbhar.

    In fact, Rajbhar’s opposition to the SP MLAs’ behaviour in the house is the second instance in 24 hours where he has flayed his ally. On Sunday evening, the SBSP chief had accused the SP chief Akhilesh Yadav of doing politics by sitting in the comforts of AC.  He had even suggested to the SP chief to shed his comfortable air-conditioned confines and come out to meet people and mingle with them. He added that the SP leaders used to ask him to enlighten Akhilesh Yadav and prompt him to come out in the field. “His (Akhilesh Yadav) leaders want him come out, meet leaders, people and take interest in the organizational work. As they hesitate in telling the SP chief all this, they want me to covey this to him which I did,” said Rajbhar.

    He also charged the SP chief with not giving 100 percent in the recently concluded Assembly elections. “He did not do his best and has still not awakened. I convened four meetings of my party on Sunday. If I can do this, why can’t Akhilesh Yadav,” asserted Rajbhar adding that as he was in alliance with the SP, it was the duty of everyone to toil equally. “We would have been in power today if we had tried well in the 2022 assembly polls as defeat is the reflection of laxity and lack of effort. Have some strength, some substance,” the SBSP chief advised Akhilesh Yadav.

    Akhilesh Yadav has been fighting battles on different fronts. On the one hand, Azam Khan, Abdullah Azam and a number of Muslim leaders along with uncle Shivpal Yadav seem to be disenchanted with his leadership, while on the other, the SBSP chief’s piece of advice has given ammo to his bashers both in and out of the SP to criticise him.

  • BJP-backed rebel SP MLA Nitin Agarwal elected Deputy Speaker of UP Assembly 

    By Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: With just five months tenure left for the present BJP government, the UP Assembly elected its Deputy Speaker after 14 years of a gap here at a special single-day session on Monday. Rebel Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Nitin Agarwal walked away with the honour.

    Significantly, the BJP had extended its support to Nitin Agarwal, who got 304 votes of the total 368 polled during the election. Nitin is the son of Naresh Agarwal who had switched over to the BJP from the SP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

    The SP had fielded its lawmaker from Sitapur Narendra Singh Verma against Nitin. Verma secured just 60 votes while four votes were declared invalid. 

    In a house of 403, BJP and allies have 304 MLAs while Samajwadi Party has 49. The Congress MLAs – seven in number – had boycotted the polling process. However, one rebel Congress MLA Aditi Singh from Rae Bareli cast her vote. The Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party has 16 MLAs in the Assembly, BJP ally Apna Dal (S) has nine MLAs, OP Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) has four MLAs. There are three Independent MLAs and two unaffiliated MLAs.

    During the election for the Deputy Speaker, cross-voting took place as the SP candidate managed to get 13 extra votes than its total strength. As per the sources, seven rebel MLAs of BSP had voted in favour of the SP candidate.

    Earlier, the single-day special session of the UP assembly began on a stormy note with opposition lawmakers protesting against the price rise and farmers’ plight. The SP MLAs demonstrated at the Assembly gate while the Congress demanded a debate on the farmers’ issues.

    Leader of Congress legislators Aradhana Mishra Mona said that BJP had made a mockery of the post of Deputy Speaker’s post by getting it elected four and half years after the assembly tenure. She said that BJP had done the same in 2001 when it got elected Ammar Rizvi in the last leg of the Assembly. Rejecting the opposition allegation, the BJP said that it had asked the opposition to give candidate or deputy speakership but the opposition parties failed to do so.

    Finally, they decided to field an SP legislator for the post. Interestingly, Nitin Agarwal had switched loyalties more than two years back to the BJP when his father and former MP Naresh Agarwal had joined the party leaving SP. The SP had even filed a petition before Speaker HN Dixit for disqualification of Nitin Agarwal but it was rejected by Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit.

    As per the political pundits, BJP supported Nitin Agarwal to woo the traders’ community ahead of the 2022 polls. Nitin’s father Naresh Agarwal is believed to be a strong Vaishya (traders community) leader. 

  • Budget passed in UP Assembly; House adjourned sine die

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh Assembly was adjourned sine die on Thursday after the House passed the annual budget for 2021-22, the largest budget so far in the history of the state.

    The government presented the last budget of its current tenure last week with an outlay of Rs 5,50,270.78 crore.

    The first paperless budget of Uttar Pradesh, which intends to make the state “aatmanirbhar” (self-reliant) as the finance minister put it, includes new schemes worth Rs 27,598.40 crore.

    The Budget Session of the Assembly was to have concluded on March 10.

  • UP govt asks legislators to buy tablets for paperless budget session

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government has asked members of the state’s legislative assembly and council to purchase tablets for a paperless budget session.

    According to Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, each legislator will be reimbursed Rs 50,000 to buy Apple iPads.

    There are 403 MLAs and 100 MLCs in the state.

    “All MLAs and MLCs in the state will get iPads. Each iPad is expected to cost around Rs 50,000 and the cost will be reimbursed,” Sharma, who also holds the portfolio of electronics, information technology told PTI.

    He said the state’s ministers have attended a training programme in this regard, and the MLAs and MLCs too will be trained before the budget session commences.

    On February 2, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had directed that the state cabinet should hold a virtual meeting in future for which ministers must be given training.

    Adityanath had said, “Modern technology is extremely helpful in performing various works quickly and in a transparent manner.

    Ministers should be imparted training for e-cabinet meetings at their official residence and office.

    Information regarding the security features for the e-cabinet meeting should be given to them.”

    He said the initiative will help the state cabinet go paperless.

    “Efforts should also be made to make the state budget paperless on the lines of the Union Budget,” he said.

    On February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had read out the Union Budget speech in the Lok Sabha from a tablet instead of a conventional paper document.

    Adityanath said before the commencement of the session of the state legislature on February 18, all members should be given tablets and training sessions be held for them to ensure effective use of the device.