Gandhinagar, Sep 9 (IANS): The Gujarat Assembly began its ninth session on Wednesday with the House paying tribute to five deceased current and former legislators, as Chief Minister and Leader of the House Bhupendra Patel recalled their contributions as public representatives.
On the first day of the ninth session of the 15th state Assembly, CM Patel moved condolence references for former Minister of State and serving member of the 15th Assembly Yogesh Patel, former Minister Mohansinh Rathava, former Minister of State Lalit Kumar Patel, and former MLAs Popatlal Patel and Sunilbhai Gamit.
Paying tribute to the deceased leaders, the Chief Minister expressed grief over their deaths and recalled the public service rendered by them during their respective tenures as elected representatives.
Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary, along with state Ministers and members of the ruling and allied parties, also expressed their condolences and remembered the contributions of the former legislators.
The House then observed a two-minute silence in memory of the deceased members and prayed for peace for their departed souls.
The condolence references formed part of the opening proceedings of the three-day Assembly session, which is scheduled from September 9 to 11.
The session is the ninth of the 15th Gujarat Legislative Assembly. The session follows a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee chaired by Speaker Shankar Chaudhary, where the proposed legislative business and scheduling of Bills were discussed.
The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rushikesh Patel, Finance Minister Kanubhai Desai, senior Minister Kurjibhai Bavaliya, Congress Legislature Party leader Tushar Chaudhary and Deputy Leader of House Shailesh Parmar.
Government spokesperson Jitu Vaghani had said the committee discussed the order in which the Bills would be taken up during the three-day session.
He had also added that condolence references for former and serving legislators who had died were discussed as part of the Assembly’s parliamentary and legislative procedures.
The state government has listed nine Bills for consideration during the session, covering areas including agricultural universities, natural farming science, rent, regulation of livestock and poultry feed, land revenue, prevention of fragmentation of agricultural land, secondary and higher secondary education, ease of doing business, and goods and services taxation.
The three-day session is expected to see the state government introduce and take up the listed legislation, while the Opposition is also expected to raise issues during the proceedings.
The final sequence of legislative business is to be determined by the Speaker and announced before the House.
