Speaker chairs all party meet before Budget Session, BJP abstains

Ranchi: Before the onset of the Budget Session of the Jharkhand Assembly which is slated to commence from February 27 Speaker Ravindranath Mahto chaired an all-party meeting on Friday which was abstained by the BJP.

Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Aalamgir Aalam, Cabinet minister Satyanand Bhokta, CPIML MLA Vinod Singh and Independent MLA Saryu Rai were also present at the meeting.

In the meeting, the speaker sought the cooperation of all the leaders in running the house properly. The issue of the festival of Sarhul falling on the working day of Vidhansabha was also discussed in the meeting. Subsequently, it was decided that after the end of the proceedings on the first working day, a meeting of the work advisory committee will be held in which the decision will be taken.

Later the speaker chaired a meeting with the senior officials of the state government over the conduct of the Budget session during which he directed to make sure that answers of all the questions which are given by the different departments should be clear so that the MLAs are satisfied with the answers.

The Speaker asked the officials to make sure that there are no flaws in the translation of copies of bills from Hindi to English. He further asked the officials to ensure full proof security inside and outside the Vidhansabha premises and all vehicles coming should be duly checked. The day ended with the meeting of the press advisory committee.