Opposition Congress walks out over suspension of zero hour

The opposition Congress on Thursday staged a walkout from Haryana Vidhan Sabha over the suspension of zero hour by speaker Gian Chand Gupta.

Bitter arguments between the opposition MLAs and treasury benches were witnessed over the suspension of zero hour and the failure of the state government to hike prices of sugarcane.

The House plunged in din when speaker Gupta suspended the zero hour after the question hour and all Congress MLAs, led by leader of the opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, got up demanding they be allowed to raise important issues in the zero hour.

Gupta, who was backed by home minister Anil Vij and education minister Kanwar Pal, asked the Congress MLAs if they felt the calling-attention motions moved by them were not as important.

However, the Congress MLAs maintained that the speaker’s move was contrary to the convention.

On this, Vij said there was no provision of zero hour as per the House rules book.

As the Congress MLAs kept on insisting for zero hour, Gupta offered to have it if time allowed after the discussions on calling-attention motions. The Congress MLAs then staged a walk-out, raising the slogan ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.

ABHAY WALKS OUT OVER LESS TIME TO SPEAK

There seemed no to be let-up in the uproar even during discussion on the calling-attention motion over the failure of the state government to hike prices of sugarcane.

The lone Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MLA, Abhay Chautala, demanded that he be allowed to speak first and given sufficient time. He spoke on the issue for a few minutes, but staged a walk-out in protest, when the speaker asked him to be brief.

However, the din persisted when Hooda objected to the agriculture minister JP Dalal’s reply to the calling attention notice, saying it was not specific.

Hooda was joined by almost all Congress MLAs, including Kiran Choudhry, Rao Dan Singh, BB Batra, Jagbir Malik, Dharam Singh Chhoker, Rajinder Joon, Mohammad Ilyas and Amit Sihag.

Several BJP MLAs, education minister Kanwal Pal and agriculture minister JP Dalal stood up and told the speaker that Congress’ ruckus showed they were not interested in discussing the farmers’ issue.

SUGARCANE PRICES

HIGHEST IN HRY: CM

While the Congress MLAs came to the well of the House and shouted slogans ‘BJP murdabad’ (down with BJP), chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar tried to pacify them by saying that Dalal’s reply was comprehensive.

He said that the state government was giving sugarcane prices to the farmers at the rate of Rs 340 per quintal, which was highest in the country.

To further enhance the prices of sugarcane, the state government is taking several measures, including increasing the income of both the cooperative and private sugar mills in a phased manner.