Sarari controversy dominates proceedings

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, September 29

Pandemonium prevailed in the Vidhan Sabha today, with the ruling AAP and the Congress trading charges against each other over the corruption issue. However, the controversy surrounding Horticulture and Food Processing Minister Fauja Singh Sarari dominated the proceedings today.

As the Congress sought the dismissal and arrest of Sarari, the treasury benches hit back by choosing to project the MLAs as “anti-Dalit”. Meanwhile, during a debate on the issue of the disbursal of the Post-Matric Scholarship for SCs, the Congress MLAs disrupted the House proceedings. They also accused their own party of maintaining silence over the scholarship scam during their rule.

As the Zero Hour began, 14 Congress MLAs demanded the dismissal of the minister from the Cabinet, registration of a case against him and a statement from Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on the issue. Mann incidentally did not attend the House proceedings today, though he did come to the Vidhan Sabha.

Sarari was caught making a plan to extort money from foodgrain contractors on an audio tape earlier this month. The Congress MLAs went to the Well of the House and raised slogans, disrupting the proceedings and forcing Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan to adjourn the House for 30 minutes.

When the House proceedings resumed again, the Speaker made some sharp remark against the Congress MLAs, leading to a renewed protest by them.

The Treasury Benches were caught off guard on the issue. Though Public Relations Minister Aman Arora tried to defend the government, saying it had already issued a show-cause notice to the minister and the CM had given his statement on the issue to the media, the Congress MLAs refused to relent.

Being a day for conducting the non-official business, the AAP was to move three resolutions on the Post-Matric Scholarship of SCs not being released on time during the tenure of the previous government and taking of appropriate steps to safeguard interests of the children of the SC community; to promote interest of children and youth in sports; and effective steps to be taken to tackle the increasing pollution due to stubble-burning. However, only the first two issues were discussed and stubble-burning could not be taken up.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Harpal Cheema, who led the charge against the Congress on the scholarship issue, said it was strange that none of the Congress MLAs had sent a single question to be asked in the House, since the previous session was prorogued on July 23.

“All 47 questions sent to the Vidhan Sabha secretariat are by eight AAP legislators. This shows that they do not want to debate on the issues of public interest, as does their resistance to participate in a discussion on the SC scholarship. During their tenure, a sum of Rs 64 crore was wrongly disbursed. But no action was taken and the Congress tried to brush the issue under the carpet. Now, we will conduct an audit of the scholarship disbursed from 2017- 2020. When we assumed power, we disbursed Rs 184 crore as the post-matric scholarship,” Cheema added.

Till the time the House was adjourned, the Congress MLAs continued to protest in the Well.

3 AKALIS WALK OUT, 2 OF BJP SKIP SESSION

As the Zero Hour concluded and the House started preparing for the next item on the agenda, three Akali Dal MLAs walked out of the Assembly, alleging that they were not given any time to speak. Notably, two BJP legislators, too, boycotted the House proceedings on Thursday.

Censure motion rejected, LoP upset

• LoP Partap Bajwa said by rejecting the censure motion moved by him to condemn the CM’s conduct, the AAP govt had stifled the voice of the state’s elected representatives
• He said: “Through substantive/censure motion, I sought to bring it to the notice of the House and residents the brazenness with which the govt betrayed the trust and went ahead with its unconstitutional business.”

‘Govt failed to give scholarship to SCs’

Deputy CLP leader Dr Raj Kumar on Thursday said even after six months of formation of the AAP govt, the SC students were not getting scholarship. Addressing the media after the Assembly session, he said the SC students were not getting their certificates due to the pending dues of institutes.

Sidelights

Protest vs protest

Some AAP ministers and MLAs were seen coming out of the House and “protesting for camera crews” in the MLAs’ lounge. They raised slogans against the Congress MLAs protesting inside.

Capes spark jokes

The treasury benches were left in splits as some of the MLAs made jokes about the capes, carrying slogans against minister Sarari, worn by the Congress legislators. Since the Congress MLAs were also clapping in a rhythm while protesting, they were taunted for performing a “traditional dance”.

Rouri in chair

Chairing the House proceedings for the first time on Thursday, while Speaker Kultar Sandhwan went to his chambers, Deputy Speaker Jai Krishan Rouri tried to quell the anger of protesting Cong MLAs. Two other MLAs Narinder Pal Singh of Fazilka and Dr Ravajot Singh of Sham Chaurasi made their maiden speeches in the House.

MLAs ‘cross floor’

During the protest, two Congress MLAs Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary “crossed the floor of the House”. This sparked a controversy, with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar, saying that they should be dismissed and moved a motion. This was disallowed by the Speaker.

Minor hiccups

Amid minor hiccups in coordination among Congress MLAs while standing in the Well of the House for three hours, Leader of Opposition Partap Bajwa kept his flock together.

Bargari row

Amid din of sloganeering, Amritsar North MLA Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh during Zero Hour tried to expose the role of former CM Capt Amarinder Singh in the Bargari and subsequent police firing cases probe.

Selfies in House

Being new, many of AAP MLAs are perhaps unaware of the House rules. MLA Dev Mann was first seen posing for pictures for MLA Narinder Pal while the House was in session. Later, he was seen clicking pictures of MLA Dr Balbir Singh, forcing the House staff to come and apprise them of the rules.