Patna: The final session of the 15th Legislative Assembly in Bihar ended on Friday after Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary adjourned the House sine die with a rider that not a single question could be taken up during the five day-long session.
Not a single short-notice question, starred question, call attention motion, private member resolution etc. Could be taken up during the five day-long session, which was a bad omen for parliamentary democracy, he said in a concluding statement.
Referring to repeated disruptions in the House, Chaudhary said no other pressing issues could be taken up for debate and urged the members that it was their responsibility to maintain sanctity of the House and safeguard parliamentary democracy.
The Speaker said thousands of people had laid their lives for attaining freedom and the country adopted parliamentary democracy with leaders like Dr BR Ambedkar leading a crusade for empowerment of the weaker sections.
Chaudhary also wished well to the outgoing members of the 15th Legislative Assembly.
During the Speaker's concluding remarks, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav charged the opposition BJP with being responsible for the disruption in the House to which Leader of Opposition Nandkishore Yadav retorted saying the treasury benches were guilty for political instability in Bihar over the past five years with three chief ministers taking oath despite the fact that the erstwhile NDA government had got three-fourth majority in the 2010 Assembly polls.
It may be mentioned that 464 questions were received by the House during the five-day session, of which 320 were admitted, but the government did not reply to them amid pandemonium.
The House also passed seven legislations, the Bihar Public Grievance Redressal Authority Bill, 2015 being the notable one, with the Nitish Kumar Government proposing time-bound disposal of grievances of the people and recommending stringent action against government servants for their failure to do so.Earlier in the day, the post-lunch sitting of the House began on a stormy note with the Leader of Opposition charging the state government with misusing public funds for putting up hoardings of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to boost the secular alliance's electoral prospects.
State Information and Public Relations Department minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary countered the charge saying the expenditure on hoardings and other publicity materials were duly accounted for.
He said the state government has provided a Rs 90 crore budget to the Department for advertisement and publicity, which was a small amount in comparison of Rs 300 crore set out for similar purpose by the Haryana government being run by the BJP.
While the Leader of Opposition and the Information and Public Relations ministers were trading charges, BJP MLAs trooped in the Well of the House and raised slogans against the state government prompting the Speaker to adjourn the house till 3.30 pm.
The scheduled private members resolutions could not be taken up by the House due to the ruckus.
Once the House resumed, the Speaker straightway made his concluding speech narrating sequence of events during the five day-long Monsoon session before adjourning the House sine die.
