MP Assembly monsoon session begins

Bhopal, July 17(UNI) The Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly's monsoon session began today with an address by President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.

To the pleasant surprise of many, Dr Kalam started his nearly hour-long speech in Hindi and later switched to English.

The 12-day session having total 8 sittings began with rendering of 'Vande Mataram'.

Alongwith few bills like MP Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill and Panchayati Raj and Gram Sabha (amendment) bill, the first supplementary budget for fiscal 2006-07 will be presented in the session, Speaker Ishwardas Rohani said about the decisions taken at the business advisory committee meeting yesterday.

Assembly rule 271 has been relaxed to facilitate the President's address to the assembly, celebrating its golden jubilee, he said.

Prominent BJP leaders including Sunderlal Patwa, Kailash Joshi, Sushma Swaraj, Anil Dave, Maya Singh and Kaptan Singh Solanki were among those present in the Speaker's gallery when Dr Kalam addressed the house. Later the house was adjourned till tomorrow.

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