J'khand monsoon session begins today, 3 important bills to be retabled

The monsoon session of the Jharkhand Assembly is set to commence on Friday, during which three important bills, which were earlier returned by the governor secretariat over "technical flaws", will be tabled again.

On the other hand, the opposition BJP has decided to corner the government by raising the issues of "deteriorating" law and order situation in the state and unemployment.

The ruling alliance and opposition BJP held separate legislature party meetings here on Thursday to chalk out strategies for the session, which will continue till August 4.

The three bills that will be retabled are 'Prevention of Mob Violence and Mob Lynching Bill, 2021', 'Jharkhand Definition of Local Persons and For Extending the Consequential, Social, Cultural and Other Benefits to Such Local Persons Bill, 2022', popularly known as the 1932 Khatiyan Bill, and 'OBC Reservation Bill'.

These were returned by the then Governor Ramesh Bais, citing several technical issues.

Congress, an ally of the JMM-led government in the state, said it has decided to raise the issue of Manipur violence during the session.

"The BJP will raise issues such as crumbling law and order situation in the state and rising unemployment, among others," said the saffron party's chief whip in Jharkhand Assembly and MLA from Bokaro, Biranchi Narayan.

BJP state president Babulal Marandi convened a legislature party meeting, which was attended by all MLAs, besides Union minister Ashwini Choubey and state in-charge Laxmikant Bajpai.

Narayan said the party will corner the ruling dispensation over "failed promise" of creating 26,000 jobs.

"Law and order has collapsed in the state and most of the murders are taking over land," he said.

On the issue of new leader of the legislature wing in the House, he said a decision on it will be taken by the central leadership of the party.

Choubey, who attended the meeting as an observer, is getting opinions of each MLA on the matter and will send those to the central leadership to take a final call, Narayan said.

Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto had on Wednesday chaired an all-party meeting to ensure smooth functioning of the House.

The BJP had boycotted the meeting as Babulal Marandi was not accorded the position of the Leader of Opposition.

The Speaker had also expressed concern over the return of different bills from Raj Bhavan on different issues, such as mismatch in Hindi and English versions of the drafts.

He had 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 had 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.