M A I N   N E W S

Demand to sack Jagmohan rocks Lok Sabha

New Delhi, July 29
The Bahujan Samaj party’s demand for the dismissal of Tourism Minister Jagmohan for allegedly “misleading” the nation on the Taj Heritage Corridor project today rocked the Lok Sabha, forcing its adjournment for the day.

Causing a big embarrassment to the ruling BJP, which the BSP supports in Delhi, party members were up in arms on the issue since morning, when the House assembled for the day.

The BSP members rushed to the well of the house and kept up the “dismiss Jagmohan” chant.

Alleging that Mr Jagmohan had misled the nation by giving the impression that work on the project was stopped by the Centre, BSP leader Rashid Alvi said it was Chief Minister Mayawati who had done so and ordered a probe into it.

The trouble started immediately after Speaker Manohar Joshi rejected his notice after listening to him for a few minutes.

The House was adjourned twice following pandemonium, with BSP members storming the well, before the Speaker called it a day during the post-lunch session.

The BJP chief whip, Mr V.K. Malhotra, ruled out the dismissal of the Tourism Minister, saying that storming of the well by the BSP members would not in any way influence the government. “The question of dismissal of Mr Jagmohan does not arise”, he said repeatedly.

The matter briefly came up during question hour in the Rajya Sabha, where Mr Jagmohan asserted that no clearance was given for the project by his ministry or the Environment Ministry.

Ruling out Mr Jagmohan’s removal, party spokesman V.K. Malhotra told reporters that Mr Vajpayee told the Chief Minister that to ask a minister to resign was the prerogative of the the Prime Minister.

Expressing unhappiness over Ms Mayawati’s style of functioning, Mr Vajpayee told her that this was “not the way to run a coalition”.

Mr Malhotra said some BJP MPs went to the Prime Minister and told him that this kind of developments in the state was a daily happening and felt that strict action be taken in this matter. — PTI