Ukhad Assembly fails to conduct even half of required sittings

Dehra Dun, Mar 6 (PTI) The Uttarakhand Assembly has failed to conduct even 30 sittings a year against the required 60 sittings as stated in the house's rule book, a report said.Since formation of the state in 2000, the Vidhan Sabha has never even crossed the halfway mark of the required number of yearly sittings, according to the recent report on Assembly's proceedings. The maximum was 23 sittings in 2003.The data revealed so far only 169 sittings have been conducted against the obligation of having at least 600 sittings in 10 years. These proceedings lasted for 751 hours and 3 minutes in combined.Over 116 hours were lost due to adjournments.Worst performing Chief Minister was N D Tiwari who remained present for only 29 days out of 83 sittings conducted during his reign (2002-2007).Uttarakhand parliamentary affairs minister Prakash Pant said blamed opposition for the poor record and said they think disrupting the house proceedings repeatedly will give publicity."Most of the state assemblies in the country are having very less number of sittings these days. There should be big political debate on the national level to settle the issue," Pant, who was the first speaker in the Uttarakhand Assembly, said.While, Opposition Congress accused the BJP government of not being sincere on the smooth conduct of the House's proceedings. "The government tries to shy away from all those issues which are of the interest of the common people," a party spokesman said.