Uproar in J&K Assembly, Governor's speech interrupted

After a brief pause, the governor began his address amid high pitched protests, noisy scenes and thumping of desks in a bid to disrupt his speech, but he continued his address.

Jammu, Jan 2: Alleging that the PDP-BJP government in the state had failed on all fronts, the Opposition in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly staged a walkout during Governor N N Vohra's address on Tuesday. Governor was to address the joint session of the assembly to mark the beggining of the Budget Session.

As the Governor was about to begin his address in the Central hall, members of opposition Congress and NC stood up and raised slogans against the state government and placards listing "failures" of the government on security and Panchayati Raj fronts.

Senior National Conference MLA Mohammad Shafi Uri started reading out from a written memorandum listing charges against the government. The governor gave him a patient hearing and asked him to submit the memorandum so that he can begin his speech. Though Shafi handed over the memorandum to the governor, Opposition MLAs resorted to sloganeering when Vohra started his address.

After a brief pause, the governor began his address amid high pitched protests, noisy scenes and thumping of desks in a bid to disrupt his speech, but he continued his address. The ruckus continued for several minutes, and the National Conference and Congress legislators staged a walkout in the middle of the governor’s address.

After over few minutes of protests and sloganeering, opposition NC and Congress staged walkout from the house. However, Independent MLA Engineer Rasheed Ahmed continued interrupting the governor' address with his protests and speaking on government's failure to save innocent lives in Kashmir.

Speaking to reporters outside the house, Congress Legislative Party leader Rigzin Jora and NC MLA Alib Mohmmad Sagar said that government had "failed" on all fronts from security to governance front.

"Security situation has deteriorated badly in Kashmir. Highest number of security forces have been killed. But Government is saying that situation is moving towards peace and normalcy. Only yesterday, 5 CRPF men were killed in a suicide attack", Jora said.

"There is no improvement in the security situation and the reality is that the situation is getting worse with each passing day since the PDP and BJP came together to form the government," Jora charged.

He claimed the casualties suffered by security forces and civilians over the past three years had increased manifold. He said bloodshed was continuing and "fatal casualty among security personnel had broken all records over the past decade".

Border residents are facing the brunt of Pakistani shelling which has also gone up alarmingly, the former minister said.

"They used to taunt us for border skirmishes.Today the situation is that every now and then, the forces and civilians are suffering casualties and the problems of border residents have increased manifold," he said.

Jora claimed the increase in violence is because "this coalition of ideologically different parties has not gone down well with the people of the state". NC MLA Ali Mohd Sagar said that party has submitted a memorandum to governor on "total failure" of the government and its dismissal.

PTI