The Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha’s Budget Session began on a stormy note on Monday as the Samajwadi Party (SP)-led Opposition protested inside the premises even as Governor Anandiben Patel addressed the joint session of both the Houses.
SP legislators — led by Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav — were seen waving placards and raising slogans, asking the Governor to go back.
Before the House commenced at 11am, the opposition MLAs held protests outside the assembly in the portico. An unplanned protest by the SP legislators, minutes before the arrival of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Governor Patel, led to a heated exchange of words and a minor scuffle between the Vidhan Sabha security personnel and the elected representatives.
Talking to the media before the start of the session, Yogi Adityanath said he was “looking forward to the Opposition’s cooperation in smooth conduct of the House”. Reaching out to the Opposition, he added: “Several big initiatives have been taken for economic and social development of the state and the government is open to all discussions.”
Meanwhile, talking to journalists while going to the Vidhan Sabha, Akhilesh Yadav alleged that the Yogi government had failed on all quarters. “Samajwadi Party will raise the issues of law and order, unemployment, plight of farmers and crimes against women,” he said. Yadav also questioned the government’s development claims. Replying to a question related to demand for caste census, the SP chief said his party would raise the same during the ongoing session.
However, all appeals for the smooth conduct of the House were ignored by the Opposition as soon as Patel started her address. Hailing the achievements made by her government in a year since returning to power in March last year, the Governor said: “UP has emerged as the engine of the nation’s growth momentum and the state has seen a big push of investment through the recent global investment summit.”
The Governor also said that during her regime, the maximum number of Jan Dhan accounts have been opened, new job opportunities have been created on a record scale and earnings of farmers have gone up.
Highlighting the achievements of her government, she added: “New expressways have been built over the past few years and there has been significant improvement in health, education and infrastructure sectors in the state.”
Throughout the hour-long address, the Opposition led by Akhilesh Yadav continued to raise slogans. Party legislators also stormed the Well of the House but an unfazed Patel carried on.
Talking to the media after the Governor’s address, SP general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya termed it a blatant lie. “The Governor’s address was a bundle of lies, it was far from the ground realities of the state. Hence, it was our responsibility to raise people’s voice in front of her.”
Congress MLA Aradhna Mishra also slammed the Governor’s speech. “The address lacked vision. It had no roadmap for the future and was far away from the truth. It tried to present a rosy picture of the state even as crimes against women have gone up.”
On Wednesday, the Yogi Adityanath government is likely to present its budget for the financial year 2023-2024. The size of the budget is likely to be around Rs 7 lakh crore, which will be Rs 50,000 crore more than that of the last fiscal year 2022-2023. The budget will see the reflection of mega success of the recent global investment summit that has attracted proposals of more than Rs 33 lakh crore.
The Vote of Thanks for the Governor’s address is scheduled to begin on February 22 after tabling of the budget and conclude on February 24. From February 25, the Vidhan Sabha will resume discussions on the budget.
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