After spending five months in Kashmir, the lawmakers will meet for a brief week-long session in Srinagar before driving to Jammu for the next half year sojourn. From all sides – the treasury benches, the opposition, the media, the bureaucracy and the security agencies, preparations are at its peak. In fact, every institution involved in the process has already chalked out its plans to cover the session that apparently has less time and more issues to tackle with.
Ideally, the house should be frequently meeting to discuss the issues that the state is confronted with. But it has effectively been reduced to twin sessions, one each in Jammu and Srinagar. The one being held in Srinagar is shorter and symbolic unlike the one in winter capital that starts in February and concludes usually in the first week of April. Kashmir being a conflict spot, there are issues cropping up almost on day to day basis and for lawmakers, waiting for a session to be convened is a long wait.
If the listed schedule is any indication, then the task is too huge. There are 68 private member’s bills being taken up – 62 of them actually a backlog from the last session. Of the nine bills that were submitted by the lawmakers this session, three were disallowed. The government is supposed to answer a total of 511 questions – 276 starred and 235 un-starred, though the lawmakers were supposed to submit 630. As many as 43 questions have been disallowed. Of the 40 resolutions that lawmakers submitted, six have been rejected. Interestingly there is one day for tackling 34 resolutions. Regardless of time limitations, the house has routinely been performing better in Jammu than in Srinagar. Usually, it is just one or a couple of issues that create situations ending up in chaos and pandemonium. Finally the chaos of the house becomes news and the issues of public importance play second fiddle to it.
From the change in LPG distribution policy to the situation in which tens of thousands of elected Panchs are surviving, there are countless issues that require lot of debate. Lawmakers should feel compelled to take care of these issues especially because they are approaching another election which political pundits foresee being advanced a bit. Even though the situation is officially improving but the state of human rights is still not improved to the level it should have been. Baramulla, for instance, is restive for last many days following many arrests. The ideological opposition is still engaged by security set up and not at political front. These are some of the issues that should find space and time.
