Row over Gir land deal: All Congress MLAs suspended for a day

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As soon as the proceedings of the House commenced, Congress MLAs demanded that a resolution by Congress MLA from Prantij, Mahendrasinh Baraiya, which was selected for discussion following a draw and was rejected at the last moment, be allowed to be discussed in the House. Baraiya even sought clarification from the Speaker for rejecting his resolution.

However, the Speaker said that the issue was finalised on Monday evening and it could not be discussed in the House during Question Hour. Then, all Congress MLAs rose on their seats in protest and started showing placards with messages like “Anar ni Mata, Bhrashtachar ni Daata (Anar’s Mother, Donor of Corruption)”, “Gaushala Mate Jamin Monghi, Anar mate Jamin Songhi (Land: expensive for Gau-shala, but cheap for Anar)”, “100 sunar ki, 1 Anar ki”, and “CM-PM Give Resignation”.

When the disruption by Congress members continued despite repeated warnings, the Speaker ordered sergeants to remove them from the House. Subsequently, the Speaker suspended all Congress members in the House for the whole day.

Later, Gohil said that that Baraiya’s Private Member Resolution was selected for discussion in the House. Gohil said, “It (the resolution) was for the preservation of ecology around Gir National Park under the legal provisions of the Forest Act. As per rules, no commercial activity is allowed within 0-5 km radius of the national park. And the resolution simply demands that the state government does some thinking on that.” He added, “Yesterday, they must have realised that if this resolution was allowed, then it would also include the discussion on the land given to the Chief Minister’s daughter in the name of Wildwood Resort and the corruption in it on the floor of the House. So, against legal provisions, our member’s resolution was rejected by the Assembly, following a request by the state government on the ground that it was a sub judice matter.”

Gohil referred to a 2008 ruling of Assembly Speaker which allowed the discussion on a subject even if it was on a sub judice matter. “At that time (2008), the discussion was allowed since it was comfortable to them. And now, they did not allow it since the matter is uncomfortable to them,” he said.

Gohil also gave details of the alleged corrupt land deal of Amreli district and said that Wildwood Resort was given 7.5 lakh sq ft land within 1.5 km limit of the forest area against rules at Rs 6 per sq ft. “And this (land allotment) was done when we had a mixture of ‘Modi-Anandi’ in Gujarat. Modi was the CM and Anandiben was the Revenue Minister,” he added.

Gohil also referred to the case of a private trust running a gaushala in Amreli district which was offered the minimum price of Rs 661 (per sq ft) for the land it sought in the region by the state government. Gohil also said that the Congress MLAs had resorted to slogan-shouting after they were “illegally” disallowed from discussing the corruption done by the BJP government in the House.

Incidentally, Congress Legislature Party Leader Shankersinh Vaghela was absent. He has not been attending the Assembly sessions after his knee-replacement surgery recently.