Madhya Pradesh assembly session: MLAs to take part via video conference

Bhopal, Sep 21: Madhya Pradesh state assembly's one-day monsoon session is all set to be held on Monday. There are fifty-seven selected members including the chief minister, his ministerial colleagues and the leader of opposition in the state assembly who will attend the session.

According to the secretariat, the remaining members can take part in the proceedings through video conferencing, the first such arrangement made in the history of the state assembly given the COVID-19 situation.

Presently, there are 202 MLAs in the house in the 230-member state assembly, twenty-eight assembly seats are lying vacant. Several MLAs are hospitalised having been infected with the novel coronavirus.

Apart from the state budget, as many as six amendment bills will be tabled in the state assembly for a discussion in the House, as per the business list of the assembly.

In the beginning of the proceedings at 11 am, obituary references will be made to the passing away of former President Pranab Mukherjee, former governor of Madhya Pradesh Lalji Tandon, Manohar Untwal and Govardhan Dangi who were members during the present term of the state assembly, 15 former members of the assembly, former chief minister of Chhattisgarh Ajit Jogi and former union minister Hansraj Bhardwaj.

There will also be obituary references to soldiers who lost their lives in a clash with Chinese soldiers in the Galwan Valley and soldiers who were killed in a terrorist attack in Baramula apart from those who died of COVID-19 in the country.

"The 57 members to take part in the proceedings in the House in person include chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, 16 of 33 ministers, 15 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs, leader of opposition in the state assembly Kamal Nath, 21 MLAs of Congress, one of two Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs, lone Samajwadi party MLA and one from among 4 independent MLAs will participate in the session. The names of MLAs were selected after an all-party meeting on Wednesday," State assembly principal secretary AP Singh.