Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday lambasted the opposition for wasting public money and precious time of the House by disrupting the Question Hour and not allowing the Assembly to function.
Talking to mediapersons outside the Vidhan Sabha after a disruptive Opposition made a mockery of the House proceedings and prevented it from conducting any serious business, the Chief Minister said the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had turned the sacrosanct precincts of the Assembly into an ‘akhara’ (battleground).
It was against parliamentary traditions to disrupt the Question Hour, during which serious public issues were taken up, and the Opposition should have raised any other concerns during the Zero Hour, the Chief Minister said, after the House was adjourned for 30 minutes due to repeated disturbances, with slogan-shouting opposition MLAs storming the well.
While the drugs case involving AAP’s Sukhpal Singh Khaira was in the judicial courts, the allegations against SAD’s Bikram Singh Majithia were being investigated by multiple government agencies, including ED, Narcotics Bureau and DRI, Captain Amarinder, who is also the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader, pointed out. These are legal matters that should not be fought on the floor of the House, he said. Responding to a question, the chief minister denied having ever giving a clean chit to Majithia. “The matter is being investigated by central agencies and the Punjab Police is extending full assistance to them”, he said.
The issue of drugs is a serious concern for Punjab but the Opposition had made a mockery of it by indulging in such gimmickry, said the Chief Minister, after SAD MLAs demanded removal of Khaira as leader of the Opposition and AAP demanded arrest of Majithia on drugs trafficking charges. Captain Amarinder said there was no question of giving a clean chit to anyone but the law will take its own course in both instances, with no government interference.
The Chief Minister said it was the first time that two opposition parties were fighting in the House between themselves instead of taking up meaningful issues in the interest of the people of the state. He ridiculed AAP for demanding more time for the session, on the one hand, and then wasting time, on the other.
These parties have no agenda except to prevent the House from running smoothly, the Chief Minister said, recalling that they had resorted to similar disruptions even during the last session.
The Opposition is out to gain cheap publicity at the cost of public money, said Captain Amarinder, adding that the exchequer loses Rs 70 lakh due to a day’s loss of Assembly business. These unparliamentary acts of the Opposition members are in total violation of legislative propriety and Constitutional norms & ethics, he added.
