AAP, Akali Dal legislators walk out of Punjab assembly

Upset over the treatment meted out to legislators by assembly staff on Thursday, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Shiromani Akali Dal members on Friday walked out of the Punjab assembly on the last day of the budget session.

The AAP and Akali Dal legislators sought an apology from assembly Speaker Rana K.P. Singh for Thursday's incidents in which turbans of Sikh legislators were tossed and some legislators were injured.

Carrying placards, the AAP MLAs, along with ally Lok Insaaf Party legislators, started a mock assembly outside the assembly building.

The ruling Congress, which has 77 legislators in the 117-member assembly, had earlier issued a whip to its legislators to be present in the house on Friday as important bills are to be tabled.

The ongoing budget session has been a noisy one in the first eight days.

Two AAP legislators, including a woman, were injured and the turbans of two others were allegedly tossed amid commotion when the watch and ward staff of the assembly physically removed them from the house on the Speaker's orders.

MLAs Sarabjit Kaur Manuka and Manjit Singh were taken out of the assembly building on stretchers and rushed to hospital.

Manuka fell unconscious after she was allegedly hit on the head during a scuffle with the marshals. Manjit Singh was also injured in the melee.

The Shiromani Akali Dal supported the AAP on this issue.

The Akali Dal legislators, led by party president Sukhbir Singh Badal, wore black cloaks on top of their clothes as a mark of protest against Thursday's incidents of manhandling of legislators.

The Akali Dal shouted slogans against the Speaker and the Congress government.

--IANS

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