Lucknow, 22 December. On Monday, the second day of the winter session of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Samajwadi Party (SP) members created a ruckus over the alleged illegal trade of codeine cough syrup and came in front of the Speaker’s podium and raised anti-government slogans. The third session (Winter) of the year 2025 started on Friday and after paying tribute to late SP member Sudhakar Singh, the House meeting was adjourned till 11 am on Monday by Speaker Satish Mahana. On Monday, demanding a discussion on the issue of codeine, opposition members alleged that hundreds of children have lost their lives due to this cough syrup. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna denied this and claimed that there has not been a single death due to this in Uttar Pradesh.
Raising this issue during the question hour at the beginning of the assembly session, Leader of Opposition Mata Prasad Pandey said, “The issue of codeine has spread like a net in the entire state and it has been going on for a long time, WHO has also taken cognizance of it.” He alleged that hundreds of children have lost their lives due to its consumption and business worth thousands of crores has also been lost. Pandey said, “The government should have come to know about this earlier. The government has intelligence, the government has intelligence agencies, if they had come to know about this earlier and action had been taken accordingly, the lives of hundreds of children could have been saved.”
The Leader of Opposition said, “If allegations and counter-allegations are going on, then let it be discussed and the Chief Minister should clarify the government’s stand. It is being said that SP people are involved in this, so my demand is that if there are SP people then action should be taken against them, but at the same time, action should be taken against other people who are involved in this also.” He demanded that this be discussed. Parliamentary Affairs and Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said, “There has not been a single death due to this in Uttar Pradesh, the allegations they are making are wrong.”
Khanna said, “The government is ready to discuss the issue of codeine. Action has been taken against the people on a large scale. The opposition has no agenda except negative thinking. Their agenda is only to spread negativity and mislead the society.” Meanwhile, SP members came in front of the Speaker’s podium in protest and kept raising slogans against the government. Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana requested the opposition members to sit on their seats several times.
Mahana said, “You (SP) have given notice under Rule 56 (demand for discussion by stopping the proceedings of the House) and when the time comes, you will get the information. For now, let the question hour continue, the government will answer on the facts you have brought.” The Leader of Opposition said, “You accept our discussion.” Mahana said that the government will respond when the time for Rule 56 comes. “Then after listening to both the parties, if it is felt that there is a need for discussion, then discussion will be held.” Mahana said, “The Parliamentary Minister said that not a single death has occurred due to codeine but you are saying that death has occurred.” After this he appealed to the agitating members to return to their places and allow the proceedings to continue. Then the SP members went to their seats.
Government presented supplementary budget of Rs 24496.9 crore
The Yogi Adityanath government of Uttar Pradesh on Monday presented the supplementary budget in the Assembly for the financial year 2025-26. On behalf of the government, Finance Minister Suresh Khanna said that the government presents a supplementary budget of Rs 24,496.9 crore. While presenting the budget in the House, Finance Minister Suresh Khanna said that the government has always worked according to its vision. The government tabled the supplementary budget in the House for discussion. Earlier, Samajwadi Party members created a ruckus in the House over a statement by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and raised slogans against the government. Even before the budget was presented, Samajwadi Party members walked out of the House.
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