Four Cong MLAs expelled from Gujarat assembly

Gandhinagar, Feb 23 (UNI) Speaker Mangaldas Patel today expelled four Congress MLAs -- Dinesh Parmar, Paresh Dhanani, Bhawan Bharwad and Jagdish Thakor -- from the Gujarat assembly for the entire Budget session for ''misbehaving with the administrative staff of the House and disrupting the proceedings'' during question hour.

The four Congress members were asking for a supplementary from Home Minister Amit Shah on a question related to large number of suicide cases in the state during the year 2006.

Dissatisfied with the answer, they raised their voice and even threatened the administrative staff, following which the Speaker expelled all of them from the House for the remainingg period of the session.

The state government told the House 5,288 cases of suicides or attempted suicides were reported during 2006, including 18 cases of mass suicides, in which all family members were involved.

Earlier, during question hour, proceedings were adjourned for 15 minutes as the opposition was not satisfied with Mr Shah's answer on the Union Government grant on the Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in Gandhinagar.

When the Congress members demanded to know about the extent of total grant by the Centre, the Minister said the grant for upgradation of the FSL has reduced considerably since the UPA government assumed office in 2004.

The Minister said the NDA government was giving a grant of Rs 120 crore for upgradation of the Lab. However, it has been reduced to Rs 49 crore now, he added.

To this, the Congress members raised objections and forced the Speaker to adjourn the House in the earlier part of the question hour.

Today is the second day of the assembly.

UNI