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Punjab Assembly to meet on March 15

Staff Correspondent

Kahlon appointed pro-term Speaker

CHANDIGARH: The first session of the 13th Legislative Assembly, elections for which were held last month, will be constituted on March 15 with administration of oath to the newly-elected legislators, according to an official release .

The decision was taken by the Council of Ministers that met on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Meanwhile, Governor S.F. Rodrigues administered the oath of office to senior Akali Dal MLA Nirmal Singh Kahlon as pro-term Speaker.

The tentative schedule would include oath-taking by MLAs, election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, Governor's address, obituary references, discussion on Governor's address, presentation of supplementary demands for grants for the year 2006-07 and Vote-on-Account for the first quarter of forthcoming financial year.

The full budget of the State Government would be presented in the next session slated for June.

The Council of Ministers decided to set up a Cabinet sub-committee on police reforms under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister and authorised him to nominate other members.

The Committee was empowered to decide and finalise the reforms in keeping with the judgment of the Supreme Court.

Later, talking to reporters, Mr. Badal refused to review the proposal of the Akali-BJP Government to scrap Section 5 of the Punjab Termination of Water Agreement, as was suggested by the Central Government and former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh as well as in the light of criticism from Haryana. The annulling of this section of the Act would amount to rescinding the various inter-State agreements on apportionment and distribution of water flowing in the Punjab rivers.

Responding to questions on the issue, Mr. Badal said the Akali Dal had included the scrapping of the section in its manifesto and had received the consent of the people in the elections.

He said that while Punjab was not pursuing an agenda to deny the rights of farmers in other States, it was the primary duty of his Government to safeguard the interests of Punjab.

He accused successive Congress governments at the Centre as well as in the State of denying Punjab its right over the river waters .

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