Written by: Express News Service
3 min readChandigarhApr 17, 2014 11:47 AM IST
First published on: Mar 12, 2013 at 05:19 AM IST
The issue of “illegal” allotment of land to Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust by the Haryana government rocked the state Assembly Monday as all the Opposition members who were demanding a probe and discussion on the issue was named by the Speaker and subsequently suspended from the House.
After a very calm zero hour,the House witnessed an uproar when the Vidhan Sabha staff started handing over the Comptroller and Auditor General report to the members towards the end of the session and BJP MLA Anil Vij stood up demanding a discussion on the “irregularities” found by the auditor in the release of land to the trust for setting up an eye hospital at Ullahwas village in Gurgaon district.
“CAG has found in its report that the land was illegally given to the Trust by Haryana government and we should discuss it now,” demanded Vij.
However,Speaker Kuldeep Sharma denied the permission and said,”House is not the proper forum (for discussing the CAG report).” He asked Vij to sit down but BJP MLA kept on demanding the discussion. Thereafter,Speaker Kuldeep Sharma named him and asked the marshals to remove Vij from the House,following which the other three BJP members walked out in protest.
After that,the main Opposition,INLD,led by Abhay Chautala and Ram Pal Majra also sought to discuss the CAG report but Speaker did not allow any discussion. When Chautala and Majra stuck to their stand,Sharma asked marshals to remove both MLAs from the House. Upset over the issue,all INLD MLAs and one SAD MLA rushed to the Well of the House and raised slogans. Then,the Speaker named all the protesting INLD MLAs.
Later,Majra said that the government acted shrewdly and started distributing the CAG report after initiating discussion on the Haryana Appropriation Bill. ‘”They actually did not want this issue to be discussed,” he said.
However,Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala tried to defend the government saying the opposition was unnecessarily trying to create an issue even as the land was given to the Trust as per the rules. “The land is given to the trust for 33 years on lease at a rate of Rs 3 lakh per acre annually. We did everything within the precincts of the law but since the Opposition does not have anything substantial to raise they are trying to sensationalise the issue,” Surjewala said.
Later,Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda also sought to justify the tabling of the report on the last day. “The CAG report is always first discussed in the meeting of the Public Accounts Committee. It is never discussed in the House in session,” he said.
Share
