Monsoon session begins Thursday
CHANDIGARH: The three-day monsoon session of the Punjab Assembly will begin on Thursday with the opposition Congress all set to take on the BJP-SAD government on the issues of recent floods and the law and order situation in the state.

Punjab government will introduce an important bill for Punjab Languages (Amendment) Act to make study of Punjabi compulsory up to tenth class in all schools and to do all official work in education institutions and government offices in Punjabi.

The brief session will have three sittings spanning from September 4 to 10. Only obituary references will be made on the opening day.

It is expected that former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh would attend the session after being absent during previous two sessions. His presence is expected to lead to hot debate between the treasury and opposition benches. The ruling SAD and and opposition Congress have already started their poll campaign with blame game on each other ahead of the assembly session.

Leader of opposition in the assembly Rajinder Kaur Bhattal said her party will raise several issues, including flood relief, corruption in government and law and order situation in the state.

The issue of funds the state government has been able to get from the Centre for relief and rehabilitation work will also be taken up during the session.  She said that state government was unable to utilise over Rs.1680 crores lying in calamity fund and now trying to shaft the blame on previous governments. "Hardly any relief has been given to the flood-hit people by the state Government," she said.

Meanwhile, the Congress has demanded that the session be extended, stating that prominent issues cannot be debated in such a brief period.

In the 117-seat assembly, SAD has 49 members, its ally BJP has 19, Congress has 44 and the rest are independents.