WINTER SESSION Annual political bustle returns to Nagpur from December 7

Staff Reporter

Putting to rest all speculations, the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) has finalised the programme for Winter Session of State Legislature at Nagpur from December 7. It will conclude on December 20, officials said on Wednesday. The meeting of BAC was held in Mumbai and it was attended by Adv Rahul Narvekar, Speaker of State Assembly; Narhari Zirval, Deputy Speaker of State Assembly; Eknath Shinde, Chief Minister; Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister; Ajit Pawar, Deputy Chief Minister; Chandrakant Patil, Parliamentary Affairs Minister; Vijay Wadettiwar, Leader of Opposition in State Assembly, and others. The session has been allocated a total of 14 days. But, the number of actual working days will be 10. The schedule of December 7 includes tabling of various ordinances, presentation of Supplementary Demands of 2023-24, condolence proposals. On December 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,18, 19 and 20 there will be Government business. December 11 and 12 are likely to have some interesting deliberations on Supplementary Demands.

On December 12, Reappropriation Bill will be presented in both the Houses. There will be no business on December 9 (Saturday), December 10 (Sunday), December 16 (Saturday) and December 17 (Sunday). There will be non-Government business (private bills, etc) on December 8 and 15. In the second week beginning on December 18 both Houses will have Government business, resolution of ruling party and last week resolution. As per the timetable the session will end on Wednesday December 20. Speculations were rife that the session would begin from December 11 but the announcement had confirmed the date to be December 7. The session usually begins on a Monday no business is conducted on the first day. This time it is starting on a Thursday.

Business of both the Houses includes congratulatory messages for individual achievements and condolence messages for the departed. This means that on December 7 there will be no business and some the next day. December 9 and December 10 will be holidays. Some members raised this point with Rahul Narvekar and argued that since no business will be conducted on Saturday-Sunday, the session should be postponed. But scheduled programme was kept unchanged. While talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Vijay Wadettiwar expressed his displeasure over the duration of the session. He said that only 10 working days of the House were not sufficient to discuss any key issues.

It may be noted that this session is significant as it is probably the last session of the five -year term of this Government.