Stage dharna before Speaker�s seat, demand notification and explanation
Ranchi: Bharatiya Janata Party legislators raised hullaballoo over the issue of bandobasti of sand ghats, mining and freight in the Jharkhand Assembly today, thereby disrupting the proceedings for a considerable time.
They sat near the seat of the Speaker and staged dharna in support of their demands related to the bandobasti and policy formulation on mining and other related issues.
As a result of the pandemonium, the Speaker had to postpone the proceedings of the house for 10 minutes. The chaos started within minues of the commencement of the question hour on the third day of the winter session.
The BJP legislators raised slogans and demanded an explanation from Chief Minister Hemant Soren. They alleged that the state government was exploiting the resources of the state at the best of the Congress party which was in power in alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and other allies. They came near the seat of the Speaker and sat nearby.
The Speaker Shashank Shekhar Bhokta tried his best to persuade the agitating MLAs, but all his efforts seemed to go in vain. Ultimately, he announced postponement of the ongoing proceedings temporarily for ten minutes from 10.20 onwards.
At the resumption of the proceedings, the BJP MLA and former Speaker CP Singh said the sand issue was related to each and every person of the state and it also affected various sectors including the construction sector. He said the state Cabinet had decided to cancel the auction of sand ghats, but had not yet issued any notification in this regard.
CP Singh further said that the 64 MLAs out of the total 81 in the Assembly were against the auction of sand ghats. He cited news reports to base his argument and demanded that the government make clear its intention and plans on the issue.
He said the company that had taken party in the auction procession of sand ghats had applied for a no objection certificate (NOC) from the government. The government should hence make its stand clear on the issue, he said.
The CPI (ML) legislator Vinod Singh sought answer to a question raised in connection with the sand issue in the Assembly.