The two-day special session of the Punjab Assembly began on Monday with Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi leading the House in paying tribute to eminent personalities, freedom fighters, martyred soldiers besides political personalities, who had passed away since the last session of the Assembly.
The special session has also been called to discuss and decide on the cancellation of power purchase agreements (PPAs) with privately owned thermal plants in the state set up when the SAD-BJP government was in power. On Sunday, the cabinet announced the extension of the session by a day.
The first day of the session, first since the change in the political leadership in the Congress with Charanjit Singh Channi replacing Captain Amarinder Singh as Chief Minister, ended in nine minutes.
On the first day, the House paid respects to former minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan, former parliamentary secretary Ravinder Singh Sandhu, martyr Naib Subedar Jaswinder Singh, martyr Sepoy Manjit Singh, chairman IFFCO Balwinder Singh Nakai, freedom fighters Niranjan Singh and Avinash Chander.
The House also paid tribute to the martyr Sepoy Gajjan Singh and freedom fighter Arjan Singh. Meanwhile, sports and youth affairs and education minister Pargat Singh proposed the names of four farmers and a journalist killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident for obituary references.
Likewise, the leader of the Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema also proposed the names of all the farmers and farm labourers who died in the farmers’ agitation. A two-minute silence was observed in the memory of departed souls as a mark of respect during the obituary references. The House was adjourned for a day and will resume on Thursday.
The Punjab Cabinet had on Sunday decided to extend the special session of the Vidhan Sabha by a day. Earlier, the assembly session had been convened on 8 November. “Keeping in view multifarious legislative business/obligations, the cabinet decided to extend the 16th special session of the 15th Punjab Vidhan Sabha by another day on November 11 (Thursday),” an official statement said.