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U.P.: A day after, SP members stage over 3-hr dharna after house adjournment
A day after police stopped the Samajwadi Party (SP)’s march to Vidhan Bhavan, party members thronged the well of the house and staged a “dharna” there for nearly three-and-a-half-hours even after adjournment of the house on Tuesday, raising anti-government slogans and demanding action against the police officers who stopped them from reaching the state legislative assembly on Monday
A day after police stopped the Samajwadi Party (SP)’s march to Vidhan Bhavan, party members thronged the well of the house and staged a “dharna” there for nearly three-and-a-half-hours even after adjournment of the house on Tuesday, raising anti-government slogans and demanding action against the police officers who stopped them from reaching the state legislative assembly on Monday.
Speaker Satish Mahana adjourned the house for the day after taking up the listed business that included tabling of three bills and petitions of members amid slogan shouting from the SP members. The SP members ended the “dharna” only after speaker Satish Mahana and U.P. minister for parliamentary affairs Suresh Khanna persuaded them to do so.
The SP leaders said they would give notices for breach of privilege against senior police officers of Lucknow police for stopping their party’s legislators from reaching the house. The notices are likely to be referred to the privilege committee of the house.
Khanna had earlier strongly refuted the accusations of the SP members that the legislators were stopped from reaching the house. Khanna said three members of state legislative council had reached the upper house. He said the processions were not allowed in high security zones without permission as per orders of the high court.
He said the police stopped them as some anti-social elements too may have come along with the legislators. Khanna said the police had suggested an alternative route to the SP members. He said the SP members, however, had a political agenda to pursue and did not agree to the route suggested by the police.
SP chief whip in the assembly Manoj Kumar Pandey, while raising the issue during the Zero Hour, claimed that a senior police officer had met Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav and an agreement was reached for taking out the SP’s march. He said a heavy police force deployed near the SP headquarters stopped them soon after the party members began moving towards the Vidhan Bhavan.
“We showed them our identity cards. This is the first time that the police have acted in such a manner,” said Pandey demanding that action for breach of privilege of members be taken against them. Some women members claimed the police had misbehaved with them. SP member Lalji Verma named joint police commissioner law and order Piyush Mordia, who, he said, stopped the SP members from reaching the house and said the issue raised a question of propriety and breach of privilege. Mordia could not be reached for his comments.
Earlier, Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav targeted the Yogi government for “failures” in health sector. Although, chief minister Yogi Adityanath gave a detailed reply but Yadav said his party was not satisfied and then SP members staged a walkout on the issue. Yadav rose from his seat soon after the house assembled at 11am to push his motion demanding suspension of rules to discuss poor health conditions in the state.
He demanded his motion under Rule 311, focusing on conditions in health sector, be taken up for discussion suspending all the rules of business. He said the National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) had sent a notice to the state government for denial of medical treatment to a child brought to Lucknow from Sitapur. Speaker Satish Mahana rejected the motion saying it did not fulfil the conditions for suspension of rules of business. The SP members soon entered the well of the house.
The SP members came back to their seats only after the speaker’s assurance that he would allow the SP leader to speak on admissibility of motion soon after the end of the Question Hour. Yadav, speaking on admissibility of motion, said the condition in the health sector was poor and questioned the deputy minister (Brajesh Pathak) for conducting raids in hospitals saying the deputy CM was acting as a “Chhapa Mantri” (minister who only conducts raids). What was the impact of these raids, he asked.
He said chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who often spoke about double engine government, should admit that he was not able to provide budget to the health department. He said Pathak might get budget for his department if he went to the chief minister requesting for the same. Yadav said listed the works done by the SP government in the health sector and claimed that the SP government even provided land to set up AIIMS.
He said the state government wanted to hand over medical institutes to private sector. He said the BJP government though had installed the statue of former chief minister the late Kalyan Singh at the Cancer Institute. “We have no objection to installation of the statue. But allocate some budget too,” he said.
