Gujarat: Cong MLAs seek debate on cotton prices, get suspension for disrupting House

Congress MLA from Jamnagar-Rural Raghavji Patel began shouting slogans in the House following which he got suspended

As many as 20 members of the opposition Congress party were suspended from the Gujarat Legislative Assembly for a day after they disrupted the house by raising slogan demanding discussion of dwindling price of cotton in the state.

On the final day of the two-day assembly session Congress MLA from Jamnagar-Rural Raghavji Patel interrupted the House and demanded discussion of the plight of cotton farmers in the state who according to him were suffering because of low price of the commodity. Patel had raised similar demand on the first day on Monday but was denied permission.

Today, the legislator vehemently demanded that the House discuss the issue of cotton farmers and the minimum support price (MSP) for the commodity offered to them in the state. He wanted a debate on the MSP offered to cotton growers, which he claimed was very low.

However, Speaker Ganpat Vasava denied him permission to raise the issue in the House. He advised Patel to discuss the issue with Agriculture minister in his office. But Patel, refused the offer and began shouting slogans in the House. Other members of the Congress party joined the sloganeering.

Some members of the Congress entered the well of the house and shouted slogans such as "give justice to cotton farmers". Vasava warned Congress members number of times and asked them to return to their seats. But they did not adhere to his requests. As a result, Vasava suspended as many as 20 MLAs who had entered the well of the House for a day. Following the suspension order other Congress members also staged a walkout.

After coming out of the House, Leader of the Opposition Shankarsinh Vaghela said that ruling government was running away from core issues of the people. "There are number of issues that government needs to deal with. But it is running away from it. Decreasing prices of cotton is a serious issue which the incumbent government does not want to discuss," he added. The opposition Congress also demanded that state government raise the MSP for cotton.