Chandigarh, October 22: The six-day special session of the Punjab Assembly began on Thursday with the House paying tributes to departed figures, including Mansa anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota, former minister and former deputy speaker Chunni Lal Bhagat, former Rajya Sabha member Varinder Singh Bajwa, former MLA Ranjeet Singh and noted doctor Dr Ratan Lal Mittal. Tributes were also paid to the eight MGNREGA workers killed in a road accident in Sangrur and to Vidya Kaur, mother of sitting MLA Manjit Singh Bilaspur, TV9 Punjabi reported.

Source: TV9 Punjabi

Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, paying tribute to Jhota, condemned his killing and said the activist's fight against drug traffickers and his work to awaken Punjab's youth against drugs would always be remembered. After the obituary references, the House was adjourned till Friday. Jhota, a kabaddi player and boxer who campaigned against drugs in the Mansa area, was murdered on October 13; the Punjab government handed the case to the CBI, which registered a fresh FIR and took over the probe this week.

Congress protest outside the House

Congress MLAs protested over the drug issue during the session and demanded that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann take moral responsibility and resign, D News Watch reported. The report said Congress legislators, led by leaders including Pargat Singh, Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, Phagwara MLA Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal and Sukhwinder Singh Kotli, burnt an effigy of the Chief Minister outside the Assembly and alleged that the government was avoiding the Opposition's questions. The Congress claim that the day's proceedings were wrapped up in nine minutes is the party's allegation; the government had not responded to it in the reports reviewed.

Source: D News Watch (Punjabi)

Bajwa had said a day earlier that the Congress would raise the Jhota killing in the Assembly session and seek the Chief Minister's resignation, Hindustan Times reported. According to the session preview, the ruling AAP is expected to defend its anti-drug campaign and highlight police action against traffickers, while the Opposition is set to press the government on drugs, law and order and corruption allegations over the remaining days.

In a separate protest in Chandigarh on Thursday, members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) demonstrated against the AAP government and Punjab Police, demanding the resignations of the Chief Minister and the Director General of Police over the drug menace, ANI reported. ABVP leader Ankit Bidhan alleged that young people, including school and college students, were falling victim to drugs while the authorities remained passive — an allegation the state government has not responded to in the ANI report.

Source: ANI via Devdiscourse

The session runs till October 27. According to Vindhya First, five reports and three important resolutions are listed for the session, with voter-roll revision (SIR), the Jhota case and law and order among the issues on which the Opposition plans to corner the government, and the AAP government preparing a possible resolution against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Source: Vindhya First