Srinagar: The Legislative Assembly Secretariat on Tuesday issued the provisional calendar for the first session of the House, set to begin on November 4.
According to the provisional calendar, the five-day session will begin with the election of the Speaker and the Lieutenant Governor’s address to the House on November 4.
On November 5, there will be obituary references for former MLAs who passed away since the last session of the erstwhile assembly.
Discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the LG’s address will be held on November 6-7.
Discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the LG’s address and the reply thereto will be held on November 8, as per the provisional calendar.
The Legislative Assembly will be meeting after a gap of more than six years with the last session held in early 2018, a year before reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.
The five-day inaugural session of Legislative Assembly is expected to be stormy with a divided opposition set to corner the National Conference-led government on a host of issues including the promises made in the ruling party in its election manifesto.
As already reported, veteran National Conference leader and former Finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather is set to become the Speaker as the ruling combine enjoys support of 55 members in the House.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has 29 members in the House, is unlikely to contest for the post of the Speaker even as the ruling party is likely to concede Deputy Speaker’s post to it.
Pertinently, all eyes would be on whether the National Conference-led government would bring a resolution against the scrapping of Article 370 and the downgrading of J&K to a couple of Union territories.
In its election manifesto, the NC had promised that the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, in its first list of business after elections, will pass a resolution against the Union government’s decision to strip the region of its statehood and special status.
It has also promised the restoration of Article 370 and Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood as well as implementation of the autonomy resolution passed by the erstwhile assembly in 2000.
200 units of free electricity, relief from power and water crises, transfer of hydro-electric power projects to Jammu and Kashmir and providing 12 LPG cylinders to the economically weaker sections each year for free are among the other promises made by the party in its election document.
