Raj Assembly adjourned thrice over Constitution amendment issue

Jaipur, Feb 19 (UNI) The Rajasthan Assembly was adjourned thrice in a row today following noisy scenes, slogan shoutings and protests over the issue of ''violation of the 91st Amendment of the Constitution'' in the recent cabinet expansion.

The row over the issue, which erupted on the opening day of the Budget session, yesterday spoiled the entire Question Hour proceeding today and even later in the day barring formalising of tabling of certain documents and reports. No Zero Hour business could be transacted.

The proceedings in the House began on a stormy note with several Congress members, including Mr Sanyam Lodha, Mr C P Joshi, B D Kalla, 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.

The 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, Mr Vishnoi took up the Zero Hour business and formalised tabling of documents amid pandemonium. Later, he 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.

On subsequent reassembling the treasury benches and the Opposition remained adamant on their stand while the former were insisting on normal business transaction while the Congress members were adamant on resolution of the issue of appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries.

The Deputy Speaker allowed leader of the Opposition Hemaram Chaudhary to make his point but the latter could not do so due to interruptions from the treasury benches.

Law Minister Ghanshyam Tiwari suggested that the issue might be debated in the House as per procedure but the Opposition rejected the suggestion that Speaker had already given her ruling over the issue in earlier sessions and there could be no debate over the ruling.

Mr Vishnoi also persuaded the Opposition to raise the issue as per the procedure laid down in the House business conducting a rules but nothing worked and unruly scenes continued.

In the meantime, slogan shoutings by members from both sides also erupted in the House. While Congress members were rasing slogans against the ''corrupt'' and ''unconstitutional'' BJP government, the treasury benches raised slogans against Congress and its president Sonia Gandhi.

At one point of time Sanyam Lodha(Congress) and Sang Singh Bhati(BJP) indulged in verbal duel and exhanged ''undemocratic'' utterances and gestures in the House.

The din prevailed for about half an hour and ultimately led to adjournment of the House for the day.

UNI SS SP RS1846