: Noisy scenes dominated the post lunch proceedings of Haryana assembly on Wednesday with the Congress benches and lone Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MLA Abhay Singh Chautala contesting the decision of the chair to disallow discussion on a calling attention notice pertaining to shortfall of 7.40 lakh boxes of country liquor from wholesale godowns of two contractors in Sonepat district.
The calling attention notice was disallowed by the deputy speaker Ranbir Gangwa on the grounds that the matter was before a court of law and cannot be discussed in the state assembly.
Abhay Singh later staged a walkout protesting against the chair’s “dictatorial” decision to disallow his notice. The Congress MLAs also followed suit, though on the issue of no increase in the state advised price of sugarcane. “It is clear that the excise and taxation minister and officials would have got exposed had a discussion taken place on the matter in the House,’’ said Abhay Chautala after exiting the assembly.
The calling attention notice given by Abhay Chautala was listed in the business of the House to be transacted on Wednesday. The INLD MLA said a reply by the state government was also uploaded on the National E-Vidhan application (NeVA) website. However, the notice was disallowed by the deputy speaker after excise and taxation minister Dushyant Chautala informed that the matter was sub-judice.
Piqued over deputy speaker Ranbir Gangwa’s decision to disallow the notice, the INLD MLA asked him whether Gangwa suspected that his (deputy speaker) name could also figure in this illegality. When the deputy speaker told Abhay Singh that the court order was of December 22, the INLD MLA asked what was the Vidhan Sabha secretariat doing all this while.
{{/usCountry}}Piqued over deputy speaker Ranbir Gangwa’s decision to disallow the notice, the INLD MLA asked him whether Gangwa suspected that his (deputy speaker) name could also figure in this illegality. When the deputy speaker told Abhay Singh that the court order was of December 22, the INLD MLA asked what was the Vidhan Sabha secretariat doing all this while.
{{/usCountry}}Congress MLA Raghuvir Singh Kadian accused the deputy speaker of being under pressure of the state government.
“Since it has been tabled, let the INLD MLA read the notice in the House. And then you can announce that the matter is sub-judice. At least the members of the House will come to know about the details of the matter,’’ Kadian said.
The Congress MLA alleged that the state government is connected with this scandal. “Sarkaar ke taar jude hue hain is scandal ke saath,” he alleged.
Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, who returned to the chair after a break, said that they would have outrightly rejected the calling attention notice if their intentions were not right.
Kadian, however, accused Gupta also of functioning under the pressure of the state government. “It’s a conspiracy. You are mixed up with the government and throttling democracy,” he said.
Congress legislature party (CLP) leader and leader of opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that this matter is now stuck. “We have to find a way since the notice has been tabled in the House. So let Abhay Chautala read it out,” Hooda suggested.
Later, the CLP leader said that a number of calling attention notices on the issues pertaining to the farmers were given by the Congress MLAs but were not taken up. “We demand that those be allowed for discussion,” Hooda said. The speaker, however, rejected Hooda’s demand.
The leader of opposition then asked the chief minister to announce an increase in the sugarcane SAP in the interest of farmers. However, he led the Congress MLAs to a walkout after finding no response from the CM.