Noisy scenes in the House during Question Hour

Jaipur, Mar 11 (UNI) Rajasthan Assembly today witnessed noisy scenes as members from the Treasury and the Opposition Benches indulged in allegations and counter allegations over the issue of postponement of government reply on status of recovery of loans from people of reserved classes and minority communities.

The question was raised by Mohammad Mahir Azad(Congress) in the question hour but Deputy Speaker Ram Narain Vishnoi informed the House that the question was being kept on hold.

Mr Azad expressed his dissatisfaction and wanted to know the reason and date for the reply. This evoked strong objection from the Treasury Benches as several members, including Government Chief Whip Mahavir Prasad Jain, Mines Minister Laxmi Narain Dave, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajendra Singh Rathore and Irrigation Minister Sanwar Lal Jat, stood up simultaneously.

Mr Jain and other ministers held that the member was questioning the Chair's ruling and authority which was not tolerable.

However, several Opposition members including Sanyam Lodha, Ram Narain Meena, Raghubir Meena and Pradhyuman Singh(all Congress) and Amara Ram(CPI-M) supported Mr Azad and alleged that the government was trying to avoid the question as the issue involved the relatives of a minister.

In the meantime, Mr Azad levelled allegation against Welfare Minister Madan Dilawar's relatives and his party colleague Sanyam Lodha made some remark against Mines Minister Laxmi Narain Dave's son.

This was protested strongly by the two ministers concerned and their party collegues.

At one point of time Mr Dave made "aggressive gesture" raising his arm towards Mr Lodha. Welfare Minister Mr Dilawar also denied the allegation and said he was ready to face probe by an Opposition-headed committee.

Congress' senior member former Finance Minister Pradhyuman Singh tried to pacify the house saying the Opposition did not mean to challenge or protest the Chair's ruling and the members were unhappy only because they felt the government was evading the question in the matter for the involvement of a minister's relatives.

Deputy Speaker Mr Vishnoi tried to resotre normalcy saying there was nothing wrong in deferring or suspending a question and the members should not waste time over such non-issue.

However, this did not work and noisy scenes continued till the end of the question hour.

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