Constitution amendment issue rocks Raj assembly

Jaipur, Feb 19: The issue of ''violation of the 91st Amendment of the constitution in recent cabinet expansion rocked the Rajasthan Assembly today.

The slogan shouting Congress members forced the chair to adjourn the House twice.

The proceedings in the House began on a stormy note with several Congress members including Mr Sanyam Lodha, Mr C P Joshi, Mr Zuber Khan and Mr Brij Bhushan Sharma making their point on the above issue and some crop, water and power related problems. This led to uproarious scenes for over 20 minutes which led to the adjournment of the House for an hour.

On reassembling after an hour Mr Zuber Khan of Congress again stood up requesting deputy speaker Ram Narain Vishnoi to decide the issue of appointments of Parliamentary Secretaries. This again led to protests and slogan shouting from treasury benches.

Congress members responded in an identical manner and gathered in the well of the House.

This created din in the House for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile Deputy Speaker Mr Vishnoi took up the Zero Hour business and formalised tabling of documents amid pandemonium. Later Mr Vishnoi ordered the opening of the debate on the Vote of Thanks on the Governor's address.

However, the debate could not be opened and Mr Vishnoi ordered the second adjournment for an hour.

UNI