Raj Assembly adjourned amid protest from Opposition

Jaipur, Mar 25 (UNI) The Rajasthan Assembly was adjourned for the day, much ahead of its schedule as the Opposition disrupted normal functioning of the House.

The Opposition protested against the appointment of politicians, other than MLAs and Ministers as the district in-charge to head the district level administrative committees, which forced the Chair to adjourn the House thrice in a row.

Sanyam Lodha (Congress) said the appointment of the politicians like Parliamentary Secretaries Board or Corporation Chairmen, who were neither member of the assembly nor members of the Council of Ministers, was in violation of the democratic decorum and conventions.

Mr Lodha said the issue was being raised by the Opposition even in chamber parleys for long and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had assured that such situation would be avoided in future. However, the assurance had not been implemented, he added.

CP Joshi (Congress) also supported Mr Lodha's stand and said such appointments had created a situation when a Minister and/or an MLA had to participate in a meeting under the chairmanship of such non-MLA or non-Minister district in-charges.

Mr Joshi said this was an insult to the MLAs, Ministers and was also against the decorum of the assembly.

State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajendra Singh Rathore defended the government's stand saying that constitutional provisions about ceiling on the size of ministry allowed appointment of only 30 Ministers in the state whereas, total districts in the state were 33.

However, the Opposition was not convinced with Mr Rathore's reply and Leader of the Opposition Hemaram Chaudhary said the Minister's reply was not serious.

His remarks evoked protests from the Treasury Benches and this provocated the Opposition members to gather in the well and raise slogans against the government.

The slogan shouting continued until Deputy Speaker Ram Narain Vishnoi adjourned the House for half-an-hour.

As the uproar continued on subsequent reassembly, the chair was forced to order two more frequent adjournments.

Efforts to persuade the Opposition failed even after fourth reassembly which forced the Chair to conduct scheduled business of the day amid din without discussion.

As a result, the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj(Second Amendment) Bill 2008 was also passed by a voice vote without discussion.

UNI SS LPB KN1846