Protem speaker takes oath in Chhattisgarh

Raipur, January 01

Veteran Congress leader and former minister Satyanarayan Sharma sworn in as protem Speaker of fourth legislative assembly of Chhattisgarh on Wednesday. He was administered oath by Governor Shekhar Dutt at a function held at Rajbhawan in presence of CM Raman Singh, former Speaker Dharamlal Kaushik, State ministers and MLAs from BJP and Congress.

Sharma will administer oath to newly-elected members of the State assembly in its session starting onJanuary 6. Later, he will also complete procedures of electing full-time Speaker of the House.

Sharma has been elected as protem Speaker under article 179 of Constitution of India that says the job should be designated to senior-most members of the House. Sharma, a six-time assembly poll winner from Mandir Hasaud constituency, was first elected as legislator in undivided Madhya Pradesh in 1985.

He won assembly polls five-time in a row. However, he could not continue his performance in 2008 as due to delimitation his constituency was merged in Dharsiwa Vidhan Sabha area and he had to contest from new constituency Raipur Rural from where Nandkumar Sahu from BJP won. This time, he contested from Raipur Rural again and defeated Sahu comfortably. He also held different ministerial portfolios under Digvijay Singh government.  

As Gaurishankar Agrawal from BJP is set to become fourth Speaker of Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha after being approved by the party high command on recommendation of CM Raman Singh, Congress is making efforts to get the post of deputy Speaker which had been kept by the ruling party for last two terms.

According to information, CM Raman Singh will introduce his nine cabinet ministers to the House on second day of the assembly session. He will also table second supplementary budget of over Rs 1500 crore for second quarter of 2013-14 during the session on January 9. After debate, the budget would be passed on January 10.

With inclusion of second supplementary budget, the State’s revised annual budget will inflate to over Rs 45,000 crore. The government had tabled its first supplementary budget of the current fiscal of over Rs 1836 crore in assembly’s monsoon session in July 2013.