Congress MLAs suspended for the day, Marshaled out

Gandhinagar: The last budget session of the 13 th Gujarat Legislative Assembly today went off to a ‘stormy’ start as expected and amid the uproarious scene created by black cloth clad members of main opposition Congress, Governor O P Kohli had to cut short his address while later Speaker Ramanlal Vora suspended all the Congress MLA’s from the house for the day.

The congress MLAs were later marshaled out of the house.

On the other hand police detained state congress president Bharatsinh Solanki and over two hundred party workers near Satyagrah Chavni ground here when they were trying to go towards the assembly for gherao event to protest the Naliya rape incident.

Meanwhile, minister of state for home and Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs, Pradeepsinh Jadeja termed the meeting of congress a fiasco which was attended by less than a thousand people instead of the claim of 10,000. ‘The behavior of congress was shameful and would defame the state and Kutch. Their rally against Naliya rape case was opposed by the locals. The BJP government in the state was resolute to take strict action against those who try to insult the daughters of Gujarat,’ he said.

Earlier, Congress MLA’s wearing black attire to protest the Naliya rape case went in to the well of the house as soon as it assembled. They were shouting slogans and throwing papers demanding inquiry of the Naliya rape case by a sitting judge of the high court. Governor Kohli cut short his speech and completed the formality of his address in just around six minutes amid chaos. Speaker Ramanlal Vora had to adjourn the proceedings for around half an hour.

Later Chief Minister Vijay Rupani moved the motion on vote of thanks. He also moved a traditional motion of condolences on the first day of the session in which the death of former Tamilnadu chief minister J Jayalalitha, ex minister of Gujarat Gabhaji Thakor and other former members including Bholabhai Patel, Laxman Aagath and Shirish Shukla was condoled by the house.

The house was adjourned for 15 minutes again owing to the resumed uproar of the Congress post condolences.

The speaker suspended the Congress MLAs for the day when they relent to stop their protest in front of his seat demanding discussion on Naliya rape incident under rule 116 of the assembly procedure guidebook on the resumption of the house.

The Congress MLA’s also shouted slogans outside the house. Earlier during the entry, they were thoroughly checked as a precautionary measure.

Leader of opposition Shankersinh Vaghela later told newsmen in the assembly premises that the government was shying away from discussion on Naliya incident and its probe through a sitting high court judge.

Mr Jadeja raised a point of order in the house to draw the attention of the speaker towards the unprecedented and ‘undemocratic’ way of protest by Congress MLA’s by wearing black attire en mass.

Deputy Chief Minister cum Finance Minister Nitin Patel will present the annual budget of the Vijay Rupani government on the second day ie February 21.

This will be the first budget under Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who took over the reigns from his predecessor Anandiben Patel after her resignation in August last year.

The session will continue till March 31 and there will be a total of 26 working days and 28 sittings (excluding holidays). At least nine bills including the one regarding the stricter new amended prohibition law (for which an ordinance was promulgated earlier) would be introduced by the government.These nine are the Tribal University Bill, Tribal Development Corporation Share Capital Bill, Town Planning Act Amendment Bill, Gujarat Panchayat Act Amendment Bill, Gujarat Urban Land Ceiling Act Amendment Bill, Former MLA Medical Allowance Bill, Gujarat Prohibition Amendment Act, Gujarat Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Amendment Bill, Maritime Board Amendment Bill and Gujarat Organic University Bill.

Apart from these, discussions are likely to take place on 12 non-government bills which had already been introduced during earlier sessions.

Meanwhile, as the assembly polls in the state are due to be held by December this year, the budget is likely to have many populist provisions including some tax sops.
On the other hand the main opposition Congress which seems desperate to take up any issue against the BJP government with an eye on the polls and had taken out a rally to protest the Naliya rape case failed to gherao the assembly today after a meeting at the Satyagrah Chhavni ground here as over 200 of its workers and party leaders including incumbent state president Bharatsinh Solanki and former president Siddharth Patel were detained soon after the meeting.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made for the session and in the wake of the Congress’ gherao programme. Heavy deployment of police have been made on all the roads leading to the assembly.

DeshGujarat

Over 2000 security personnel including 6 companies of SRP have been deployed here.