Opposition boycotts Bihar Assembly over law and order

Patna, Dec 12: The Opposition today boycotted Bihar assembly proceedings, demanding acceptance of yesterday's adjournment motion on rising crime and the law and order condition in the state.

None of the opposition members attended the session of the Lower House, and the entire opposition benches remained vacant even after request by Speaker Udai Narayan Choudhry and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

In his ruling, Mr Choudhry said the yesterday's adjournment motion, moved by RJD member Shakeel Ahmad Khan and others, was rejected as per the laid rules.

He said despite all efforts the House could not be brought to order because of the Opposition's stand and the chamber had to be adjourned twice yesterday.

''As per the rules, an adjournment motion is accepted only in special and serious situation and the Opposition's adjournment was against the rules. Hence it was turned down,'' he said.

He requested the Opposition members to attend the House and move the issues raised in their adjournment motion in some other form.

Supporting the Speakers request, Mr Kumar too made a similar request, saying that the opposition should participate in the proceedings of House.

He said the government was ready to hold debate on any matter and, in the form raised by the opposition, which instead of boycotting the House, should take part in active discussion.

The adament opposition members, however, did not consider the requests and refused to attend the House.

Earlier before the House took up the business, senior BJP Bhola Singh, one of the presiding officers, drew the attention of the chair towards the absence of opposition, terming it was ''a strong pillar of democracy''. He, however, expressed concern over the objections raised by the opposition towards the chair and said that the chair could not be dragged into any issue.

Mr Singh urged Speaker to talk to the Opposition leader, adding that holding question hour would be meaningless in absence of the opposition.

State Parliamentry Affairs Minister Ramashraya Prasad Singh referred to a news article published in local Hindi news paper in which the Leader of Opposition has blamed the Speaker for functioning as an ''agent of government''.

He said the rules did not permit any member of the House to raise finger on the Chair's functioning. ''It amounts to an attack on the dignity of the House and the members were feeling hurt,'' he said. In such a situation, it was now up to the chair to initiate steps to protect the dignity of the House.

The Speaker later directed the government to reply about the action taken and progress in the murder case of noted professor Papiya Ghosh.

UNI