■ Opposition Up In Arms, Govt Armed With Figures
■ PDP, BJP, NPP To meet On Feb 21; Coalition To Hold Joint Meeting.

Jammu, Feb 19: The forthcoming budget session commencing from February 22 is likely to be stormy as opposition parties are gearing up to corner the National Conference led coalition government on various issues, including human rights violations, surrender policy, unemployment and price hike.
 Proceedings of the budget session would commence with Governor N N Vohra addressing the joint session of the legislature. It would be followed by discussion on the governor’s address in both the Houses and the government would present the annual Budget before the state Legislative Assembly on March 12.
 Sources told Greater Kashmir that the assembly secretariat had received a total number of 1133 questions from the legislators out of which 57 were rejected on various grounds while at least 1076 questions have been admitted. “Out of 1076 admitted questions, 628 questions are starred and 505 are unstarred”, sources said.
 Similarly the assembly secretariat has also received total number of 62 private members’ bills out of which at least 16 have been disallowed. Beside the new private members’ bill the state assembly is also likely to discuss at least sixteen bills which were pending from the last session, sources revealed.
 “At least 112 resolutions have been received from 30 members of the state assembly which will be tabled before the House during the session”, sources revealed.
 The government is also expected to table at least half a dozen bills for consideration of the House, which include prestigious Jammu and Kashmir Protection of Women from Domestic Violence, Jammu and Kashmir Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, pertaining to Power, Jammu and Kashmir Benami Transactions and Constitutional (Amendment).
 While the state government has reportedly adopted center’s Acts on Domestic violence and Benami transactions, the government is reportedly seeking to bring down 18 per cent rate of interest to 6 per cent in any arbitration award under Sub-Section 31 of Section 7 of J&K Electricity Act and for this purpose JK Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill will be tabled in the house.
 Sources said that the state government would table the annual budget on March 12 after receiving final figures of annual plan allocation from the Planning Commission of India. Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather would seek nod from the cabinet before presenting the Budget before the House, they added.
GOVT TO HIGHLIGHT ACHIEVEMENTS
 Taking a lesson from the previous budget session,  the government has reportedly evolved a comprehensive strategy this time to face opposition.
 Reliable sources revealed that the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his cabinet colleagues were busy in preparing data to confront Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which like previous year seems to be biggest challenge for the government, on issues relating to developmental and human right violations with the help of `facts and figures’.
 Sources said that the cabinet ministers have been asked to be loaded with comparison figures and achievement of the government as compared to the previous regime.
 The coalition alliance, sources said, would be meeting on February 21 so as to chalk out joint strategy for the ensuing session. The joint meeting would precede the legislative body meetings of both Congress and National Conference.
OPPOSITION UP IN ARMS
 All the opposition parties, including PDP and BJP, are holding its legislative party meeting on February 21, a day before commencement of the session.
 PDP has already announced that its legislators would meet on February 21 to formulate strategy for the budget session of the Legislative Assembly.
 Sources said that the BJP, having 11 MLAs, and NPP, having three MLAs, would also meet on the same day to finalize the strategy.
 Sources said that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is also set to rake up issues relating to human rights violation especially rape and murder of two women in Shopian, which dominated the previous session, and recent killings of teenagers. The party is, however, planning to corner the government on issues related to development, price hike, unemployment and corruption.
 The second largest opposition party, BJP, is also planning to corner the government on unemployment and developmental issues. However, the biggest issue for the party is likely to be the proposed surrender policy by the Omar led coalition government. “We will oppose the move tooth and nail in the House”, a senior party leader said.
 The BJP is likely to get support of NPP on the issue, which has been demanding a white paper from the government on the proposed policy.
 The budget session is likely to be stormy and the opposition will start its protest from the day one when both houses will meet for Governor’s address.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:00:00 IST