Besides the afflicted legislators, many officers and employees were also reported to be infected by Covid-19. This caused panic and at an all-party meeting, it was unanimously decided to cancel the session. Not only because of the pandemic, but because of a variety of reasons, the Vidhan Sabha has held few sittings in past. It appears that the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha has lost its relevance altogether.

The present Vidhan Sabha was constituted in December 2018. After that, it met for four days in the month of January 2019, and then it met for three days in February 2019. After that a 17-day session was summoned in July 2019, but only 13 sittings were held. Then it met for four days in December 2019. After that, notice was issued for a 17-day session in March-April 2020, but it managed to meet only for two days. It was during these two days that Kamal Nath resigned as Chief Minister of the Congress-led government. Again, in the month of March 2020, it met for one day, though notice was issued for a session of three days. Again, in July, house was summoned for a five-day session, but subsequently, it was cancelled. Then proposed session for three days was held for only one day. Then the house was to meet for three days in December, but once again, it was cancelled. During these sittings, no attempt was made to elect the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker. This appears to be a Himalayan failure.

Besides the non-election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, delay in expansion of the council of ministers is causing concern to those legislators who deserted the Congress in order to join the BJP. Almost all of them had also resigned from the Vidhan Sabha and then got elected in the by-election. The election results were declared on November 10. All of them are Scindia followers. Scindia himself has been lobbying for the induction of his followers in the ministry. He has made three trips to Bhopal to discuss the issue with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, but without any result.

Asked about the expansion of ministry by the media, CM Chouhan said expansion could wait ashe was busy in an aggressive campaign against the ‘mafia’, his euphemism for the protesting farmers of Madhya Pradesh. The CM said at a farmers' rally in Babai, Hoshangabad about 100 km from Bhopal that he’d “bury the criminals under 10 feet soil”, and “no goons would be spared”. He added: “These days I am in a dangerous mood. I won't spare criminals. ‘Mama' is in form.”

“Good governance is being implemented in MP, as per the vision of former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee”, said Chouhan. "There will be rule of law in the state. not of goons and miscreants," he asserted. “Good governance means ensuring that the benefits of government services reach the public within a fixed time frame without any give and take,” he explained.

The CM started his address by offering tributes to Vajpayee and announced that a huge memorial would be built in his memory in Gwalior. Chouhan reiterated that the three new agriculture laws were beneficial for farmers since they could now sell their crops in the mandi or anywhere they want. Mandi duty has been reduced to 50 paise in the state, he said.

The Madhya Pradesh government is making a simple perform for contracting crop purchase from farmers so that farmers have no problem understanding the contract and no one can create any trouble for them, Chouhan said.

The BJP government in MP has transferred Rs. 82.422 crores to farmers under various schemes and purchase on support price. An amount of Rs. 8,646 crore has been provided to farmers for crop insurance and in addition to the Rs. 6,000 given by the Centre to farmers every year, the state government provides an additional Rs. 4,000 under "Kisan Samman Nidhi" scheme, CM Chouhan said. (IPA Service)