‘Hooch’ deaths rock assembly, CM back in House days after spat with Speaker

Suspected hooch deaths reported from across Bihar during the Holi festival last week rocked the state assembly on Wednesday, with Opposition parties creating a pandemonium and forcing repeated adjournments.

Suspected hooch deaths reported from across Bihar during the Holi festival last week rocked the state assembly on Wednesday, with Opposition parties creating a pandemonium and forcing repeated adjournments.

RJD MLA Mukesh Raushan demonstrates outside the Bihar Assembly on Wednesday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

Trouble started in the House during the zero hour after Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha rejected the adjournment motion brought by Congress and CPI (ML) members seeking a debate on suspected hooch deaths .

Congress’s Ajit Sharma and CPI (ML) legislator Satyadeo Ram stood up in protest followed by RJD members, who trooped into the well.

At this point, parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary stood up and informed the House that government had taken note of the issue raised by members. “There is a scheduled debate on home department’s budgetary demand day after tomorrow. Members can raise their point during the debate and government would give a reply accordingly,” Choudhary said.

However, opposition members remained unconvinced and demanded that the government make a statement in the House on suspected hooch deaths even as several members raised slogans against chief minister Nitish Kumar .

As the din continued, the Speaker adjourned the House till post lunch session.

However, the House was adjourned after mere 14 minutes in the second half too and later transacted routine business for just 10 minutes as the Opposition members again trooped into the well, shouting slogans and demanding compensation for the victims of the suspected hooch deaths in Banka, Bhagalpur, Madhepura and Gopalganj during Holi and seeking resignation from of minister Nitish Kumar.

As soon as the House resumed at 4.50 pm for the government reply on the budgetary demand of building construction department and minister concerned Ashok Choudhary started speaking, Opposition members stood up with sloganeering. Nothing was audible in the din, though the minister continued.

CM Kumar also came to the House at the fag end for the first time since the spat between him and Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha and witnessed the sloganeering. Despite the Speaker’s request to the Opposition members to take their seats, they remained in the well till the adjournment of the House for the day after the passage of the budgetary demand of the building construction department with voice vote without any debate.

The budgetary demands for urban development and housing department, mining and geology department and transport department were also passed through guillotine amid the din.

Amid the pandemonium, the state assembly also authorised the Speaker to nominate members for the public accounts committee (PAC), estimates committee and the public undertaking committee, as their two-year period is ending on March 31, 2002, for another two years up to March 31, 2024.

The financial committees of the House have a tenure of two years since 2016 and they comprise members from both Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council.

Parliamentary affairs minister Choudhary moved the proposal for nomination of members, relaxing the election process involving proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. The Bihar Legislative Council will apprise the Assembly of its nominees for the three committees.