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Zero hour: SAD, AAP members stage walkouts from Punjab assembly
While Akalis protest against alleged misbehaviour of Cong workers with anganwadi workers, principal opposition party flays govt for imposing new tax
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLAs on Wednesday staged a walkout from the Punjab Vidhan Sabha over the alleged misbehaviour of the Congress workers with anganwadi workers protesting in Bathinda against the budget presented by finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal.
The Akali MLAs led by Bikram Singh Majithia walked out of the state assembly during the ‘zero hour’ demanding the withdrawal of cases registered against the protesting anganwadi workers. Majithia raised the issue, accusing Congress workers of vulgar behaviour with the women workers protesting outside the finance minister’s office, and then led the party legislators into the well of the House.
Speaker Rana KP Singh told the Akali members to go back to their seats. “You have raised the issue. The government is not required to give a reply during the zero hour,” he said. The SAD MLAs kept raising slogans against the government. As they were leaving, Manpreet entered the House and offered to give his reply, but the Akali members did not stop. The finance minister denied the allegations, stating that no Congress workers had misbehaved. The speaker told him that there was no needed to clarify.
AAP protest against new tax
A few minutes later, legislators of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also walked out of the House to protest against the Punjab Infrastructure Development and Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2021, being brought by the Congress government to impose a new tax on people of the state. AAP MLA Aman Kumar Arora accused the state government of cheating the people by burdening them with a new tax on petrol, diesel and immovable property.
“The state government, in its budget, stated that no new tax is being imposed but is quietly bringing the bill to put an additional burden of at least ₹216 crore. Is this a joke?” he said, accusing it of looting people to fill its coffers. The speaker told the member to take it up when the bill is brought for discussion. Arora and other AAP members went into the well of the House before staging the walkout, raising slogans against the state government and its proposed tax. “We will continue our protest until the Congress government withdraws this black bill,” Arora later told reporters.
Earlier, leader of opposition Harpal Singh Cheema also raised the issue of the power department’s instructions to its staff to switch to a private mobile service provider against whom the farmers of the state have been holding protests for the past several months. “The chief minister is the minister for this department and these instructions amount to betrayal with farmers,” he said, demanding a probe into the matter.
