E-Paper
Madhya Pradesh cabinet flags coronavirus threat day before floor test
The minister said the assembly will decide whether proceeding should be postponed.
A day before the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh is to face a floor test in the assembly, a minister flagged the threat of coronavirus and suggested that proceedings in the House could be put off.
Minister for public relations PC Sharma’s comment came at a briefing after a cabinet meeting on Sunday.
“The cabinet discussed how corona virus outbreak has led to postponement of state assemblies in several states. However, whether it should be replicated in MP will be decided by the House only when it meets on Monday,” he said.
The minister spoke at length on how coronavirus outbreak has affected 113 countries and that it has been declared as an epidemic worldwide.
“Even in Lok Sabha there was a demand to postpone the proceedings in view of coronavirus outbreak,” he said.
The number of coronavirus cases in the country has risen to 107 even as the Central and state governments scaled up their response to stop the virus from spreading. Two persons have died of the disease in Delhi and Karnataka.
Late Saturday night, Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon directed chief minister Kamal Nath to seek a trust vote in the assembly on Monday, days after 22 Congress legislators resigned en masse leaving the government staring at a collapse.
With 19 rebel MLAs ensconced in Bengaluru, the Congress had taken about 80 of its legislators to Jaipur to prevent poaching by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Congress lawmakers who returned from Jaipur on Sunday have been taken to hotel where they will stay till the floor test on Monday.
Sharma insisted that the MLAs who are in Bengaluru were kidnapped and hypnotized.
“Our MLAs have been kidnapped and held captive in Bengaluru. On seeing them it appears they have been hypnotised and subjected to tantra-mantra (black magic).”
The Congress lawmakers who returned from Jaipur, insist that the government will survive the floor test despite the resignations of the 22 MLAs.
