School students take over HP assembly for mock session, demand stern action against drug traffickers

Shimla: School students took over the Himachal Pradesh Assembly for an hour and a half on Monday, participating in a mock session in which "opposition MLAs" trooped into the Well of the House, demanding action against the drug traffickers.

The one-day MLAs, selected out of 1,085 applications received by the state's Education Department, also raised the issue of drug menace during the Vidhan Sabha's "Bal Satra", or the children's session.

For the first time, Himachal Pradesh got a woman chief minister – in the make-believe session, the post was held by Jahaanvi.

Stating that the drug menace situation in the state is so grave that today parents are scared to even send their children out of their homes, the MLAs of the opposition party said the state government is just arresting a few peddlers in the name of curbing the issue.

Terming the state government as "government of assurance", they raised anti-government slogans and walked to the Well of the House, demanding strong measures to curb the drug menace in the state.

"We are aware of the concern of the opposition leaders. My reply might seem like a formality to the leader of the opposition, but my government is sensitive to the problems of the people," said Jahaanvi, directing the home minister to take strict action on the matter.

Earlier, replying to a question, Deputy Chief Minister Tushar Anand informed the house that there are 91 'Nasha Mukti Kenderiya' (deaddiction centres) in Himachal Pradesh.

He said most of these centres are set up in the bordering districts of Solan, Una and Kangra as drugs especially "chitta" is smuggled through these areas to Shimla, the capital district.

The MLAs raised several questions on other subjects as well, like career counselling of youth, environment protection, health and sports facilities, water issues, the financial health of the state, bad condition of temple roads, paper leaks and shortage of parking space during the question hour.

The conduct and discipline of children could serve as a lesson for the legislators.

Interestingly, the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha was dominated by girls with only 28 out of 68 legislators being boys.

The MLAs also raised other issues and gave their suggestions on promoting health and apple tourism to increase revenue, increase women's participation in politics, legalising hemp and negative impact like depression and stress due to Covid-19 and stray animal menace during the one-and-a-half-hour session.

The young legislators' suggestions on other issues included replacing hydropower with solar energy, reducing accidents by installing crash barriers, imposing cess on vehicles from other states and bringing a policy for elderly people as well as for the adoption of specially-abled children.

Later addressing the students, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu highlighted the women's strength in his regime, saying that this time 37 per cent of the winners in panchayat elections in Himachal were women.

Even 21 out of 36 councillors of Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) are women, he added.

The Congress leader said the state government would think about starting 10 minutes of yoga in schools as suggested by the children.

Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania said about 50,000 had participated in the three-month-long campaign 'Baccho Ki Sarkar Kaisi Ho' organised under the aegis of the Himachal Pradesh Education Department.

Between April 1 and May 25, as many as 1,085 governments, non-government and non-school-going children registered and sent videos on the problems they would like to raise in the legislative assembly along with their suggestions to address them.

Those selected are mostly from government schools, representing 63 schools in 43 assembly constituencies in Himachal and one school each from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The historic "Bal Satra" conducted on World Day Against Child Labour was aimed at sensitising the children about political literacy along with other burning issues, including citizens' rights.