Noisy scenes disrupt Raj assembly

Jaipur, Feb 26 (UNI) The Rajasthan Assembly today witnessed noisy scenes for over 20 minutes with the Opposition Congress members expressing their dissatisfaction over the suspension of the Question Hour.

As per the earlier ruling given by Deputy Speaker Ram Narain Vishnoi the questions slated for February 19 were to be taken up in the House today as the Question Hour proceeding on that day was marred due to Pandemomium on the issue of appointments of Parliamentary Secretaries.

However, later the Deputy Speaker had superceded his earlier ruling and held that there would be no Question Hour today.

As soon as the House assembled at 1100 hrs Hari Mohan Sharma of Congress was on his feet to express his dissatifaction over the issue. He said certain questions of vital importance were included in the list of questions which were scheduled to be taken up.

Mr Sharma wanted to know the reason behind the change in Deputy Speaker's ruling.

He was joined by several party colleagues including Leader of the Opposition Hemaram Chaudhary, B D Kalla, Ram Narain Chaudhary, Congress Chief Whip Zuber Khan, and C D Deval.

However, members from Treasury Benches, including Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajendra Singh Rathore, Government Chief Whip Mahavir Prasad Jain, Cooperative Minister Nathu Singh Gurjar, defended the Chair and this led to noisy scenes which continued for over 20 minutes.

Mr Rathore said the answers to some of the questions which were to be taken up today were leaked into the media. Therefore, it was not appropriate to hold disscussion over such questions in the House.

However, the Congress members said the Opposition was not responsible for the leakage and their privilege to raise questions in the House should be protected by the Chair.

The Leader of the Oppsoition said, since the question and answer sets given to some members inclduing him were withdrawn by the Question branch, therefore, the same should be taken up in the House.

He said the Opposition did not intend to question the Chair's ruling but simply wanted to know when these questions would be taken up.

The Deputy Speaker disalowed the members saying that his ruling could neither be questioned nor disscussed in the House.

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