Assembly takes up record number of call attention notices

Bhopal, Mar 14 (UNI) The Madhya Pradesh Assembly today took up a record number of eight call attention notices though a total 16 were listed for the day.

''Normally a maximum of four such notices are taken up in a day,'' Speaker Ishwardas Rohani said, adding that maximum notices were allowed to facilitate members to take up urgent matters.

Damage to crop such as soybean, wheat and gram in Sagar, Dewas and Ujjain districts due to vagaries of nature and an acute potable water problem in Shivpuri and Barwani districts were raised through call attention notices.

Samajwadi Party members Kishor Samrite and Arjun Palia raised the issue of compelling tribals to flee naxalism-affected villages near Balaghat district's Lanji on the pretext of a Maoist threat in order to cover up corruption by forest officials in development work.

Congress members Govind Singh and Arif Aqueel raised the evasion of royalty on minor minerals used in construction of the Bharat-Oman Refinery at Sagar district's Bina. Mr Uma Shankar Gupta (Bharatiya Janata Party) raised the issue of corruption in purchase of books for schools from book fairs organised in each district every year.

UNI SP AC 1646