Ranchi: Jharkhand assembly speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto chaired an all-party meeting on Wednesday for the smooth functioning of the House during the monsoon session, which will begin on July 28.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Minister Satyanand Bhokta, AJSU Party leader Lambodar Mahto and some Independent legislators were present at the meeting. The MLAs of the opposition BJP gave the meeting a miss.
“I hope the session will be fruitful, and ruling and opposition parties will contribute to the smooth functioning of the House,” the speaker told reporters.
“There will be a total of five working days during the session, which will begin on Friday and conclude on August 4. At the meeting, I also discussed how the session could be utilised for more benefit of people,” he said.
The BJP said it boycotted the meeting as Babulal Marandi has not yet been designated as the leader of opposition.
BJP’s chief whip Biranchi Narayan told PTI, “I was invited to attend the meeting but I boycotted it as our leader Babulal Marandi has not yet been considered as the leader of opposition.”
The speaker also held another meeting with officials of government departments, and expressed concern over the return of different bills from Raj Bhavan on different issues, such as mismatch in Hindi and English versions of drafts.
He directed the officials that the bills, which would be brought during the session, should be sent to the Raj Bhavan in their original form, which is in Hindi, so that such mismatch could be avoided.
The speaker also expressed concern over not getting answers of pending questions from different departments.
“Answers to 1,215 pending and unanswered questions are yet to be received from the different departments. Senior officials should take cognisance,” he said at the meeting.
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