Stormy start to Monsoon session as SP MLAs walk out over ‘power woes’

Before the start of the session, Adityanath told mediapersons that his government was ready for a “constructive discussion” on issues related to people and the state’s development during the monsoon session.

With a number of Assembly members being elected to the Lok Sabha, including Samajwadi Party chief and former LoP Akhilesh Yadav, the seating arrangements of SP members was changed, with some of the senior leaders getting front row seats. Some of the SP members who had shifted their support to the ruling BJP were also taunted by other members of their own party who urged them to resign.

The session began with SP members entering the well of the house with placards, raising slogans against the state government on law and order, electricity woes, flood situation, women security and other issues. As soon as the house met for the day, Speaker Satish Mahana welcomed the new LoP Mata Prasad Pandey, who soon demanded discussion on several “serious issues”.

“There are many serious problems being faced by the state at present. Flood, law and order, electricity, corruption…,” said Pandey, who also urged SP legislators to raise these issues. Soon, SP legislators entered the well of the house raising slogans such as “Bijli samasya dur karo” an “Kisan ki dushman sarkar
nahi chalegi”.

Speaker Satish Mahana told Pandey that as LoP, he (Pandey) has the right to give notices for discussion and that the government is “ready to answer”. On the request of the speaker, Pandey requested the SP leaders to return to their seats so that the question hour can resume.

Soon after, during question hour, SP MLA Ragini Sonkar raised the issue of “shortage of doctors”, alleging poor health infrastructure and pointing especially towards Jaunpur Medical College, which she alleged was facing “waterlogging”. Ragini alleged that Uttar Pradesh tops the number of cancer patients in the country, with a total of nearly 16 lakh patients at present. Sonkar said, “It is a shame for the UP health minister as well as the government”. She also asked whether the government would consider appointing a doctor as Director General of Medical Education instead of a bureaucrat.

Replying to Sonkar, Deputy Chief Minister and Health Minister Brajesh Pathak said that Jaunpur Medical College was facing issues because of “corruption in allotment of work during the erstwhile Samajwadi Party government’s tenure” and said that an inquiry was ongoing in this regard. Adding that no one indulging in corruption would be spared, Pathak said that while it is evident that there has been a shortage of doctors, the government has taken corrective measures.

Mata Prasad Pandey then asked the government whether medication for tuberculosis was available for patients in the state in a “timely manner”. Pathak said that medication is being made available to the patients.

Interestingly, when SP MLA Abhay Singh, who supported the ruling BJP during Rajya Sabha election that took place just before the Lok Sabha polls, started praising the efforts of the government to provide testing facilities in all 75 districts of the state unlike the past, he faced opposition from his own party members. Interrupting his statement, SP MLAs started shouting, “Stifa de do, join kar lo unhe (Submit your resignation… Join them instead).”

Later during zero hour, opposition including leader of opposition Mata Prasad Pandey alleged that common people in the state were facing several issues related to “irregular power supply, irregularities in billing, constant defaults in transformers and so on.”

Replying to opposition members, Cabinet Minister A K Sharma claimed that the problems being faced by the state in the power sector is due to “wrong policies” adopted by the erstwhile SP government, which he claimed are being corrected by this (BJP) government. He also claimed that although the Congress and the SP were in power for nearly 70 years, they “suddenly become aware about these issues when in the opposition although they did nothing when in power.”

Sharma alleged that the state was facing “heavy burden” on exchequer because of the “high cost” pacts signed during the tenure of previous governments in the state.

Claiming that the state was “leading in power supply” at present in the country, he informed the house that it was supplying 30,618mw, which has never been supplied by any state. He informed that in 2013-14, maximum load was 12,327 mw a day. He informed that in the past two years alone, around 30,000 new transformers have been installed in the state.

As Sharma informed the house that just a day ago, he suspended a person in Ballia district, SP raised an objection to a reference to the person’s caste. “The minister did not inform who the person is. Was he an engineer who has been suspended? He mentioned that a person from a certain caste has been suspended. So is action being taken on the basis of caste? I requested that the word (reference to a caste) be removed from the proceedings,” said Pandey.