Oppn cries foul as assembly drops CM question hour

Ranchi: Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha on Thursday abolished its unique tradition of chief minister's question hour amid protests by the opposition lawmakers.
The CM question hour was a regular feature of every working Monday of the budget, monsoon and winter sessions where incumbent chief ministers were asked questions on policy matters by the MLAs from the ruling and opposition.
The proceeding was dropped based on the recommendations which were made by the Rules Committee of the House.
“The government dropped the CM question hour because it is trying to shy away from tough questions which are being asked by the opposition,” BJP’s Godda MLA Amit Mandal claimed.
Apart from that, the House also passed through voice vote a proposed amendment to its 2006 regulations on disqualification of MLAs in case of defection, paving the way for common citizens to file a petition in defection cases in the court of speaker. It also abolished the current regulations which mandated that defection cases could be brought to the court by the incumbent speaker through suo moto cognizance.
Meanwhile, on the penultimate day of this year’s budget session, the state assembly passed the ‘Jharkhand State Farm Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion & Facilitation) Bill of 2022’ and the ‘Jharkhand Extension of Consequential Seniority to Government Servants Promoted On the Basis of Reservation To the Posts in State Services Bill of 2020’ through voice vote even as opposition MLAs brought amendment motion against them and demanded that they be sent to select committee for a review.
The farm bill, tabled by agriculture minister Badal Patralekh, proposed to introduce 2% taxation on the market committees functional in Jharkhand for their infrastructure development and upkeep. It also amended the administrative control of the committees and paved the way for appointment of social workers as chairpersons instead of sub-divisional officers.
Moving an amendment motion, BJP’s Bokaro MLA Biranchi Narayan claimed that the new bill will pave the way for corrupt practices.