AAP stages walkout from Punjab Assembly after adjournment motion rejected

Members of main opposition party AAP staged a walkout from the House on Monday after their adjournment motion over "high" power tariff was rejected by the Punjab Assembly Speaker here.

After the calling attention notices on the second day of the ongoing monsoon session of the Assembly, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs rushed to the Well of the House when their adjournment motion was rejected.

AAP legislators including Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema, Aman Arora and others raised slogans against the state government and the Speaker for not allowing them to speak on an important issue.

However, two AAP MLAs, Kanwar Sandhu and Pirmal Singh Khalsa, did not join other party members in the Well of the House.

The Speaker persuaded AAP members to return to their benches but they refused to budge and continued to raise slogans.

When the Speaker asked them to go back to their seats to participate in the discussion on the Bills, AAP legislator Aman Arora said they have not been receiving Bills on time.

"How can we debate on the Bill when we receive its copy on the day when Bill is tabled? As per rules, copy of Bills should reach members at least 15 days before its presentation which has not been happening," rued Arora.

Coming out in support of AAP legislators, Speaker Rana KP Singh said they have raised a valid point and asked state Parliamentary Affairs minister Brahm Mohindra to ensure they get timely copies of Bills.

Earlier, during the Zero Hour, AAP MLA and Leader of Opposition Cheema raised question over the intention of the state government regarding the investigation into 2015 sacrilege incidents.

Cheema accused the state government of playing a "friendly match" with Badals and claimed that the ruling Congress was trying to "protect" them.

He also raised question over the requested sent by Special DGP-cum-Director Bureau of Investigation, Punjab, Prabodh Kumar, to the CBI, seeking further further investigations into certain aspects highlighted by Punjab police Deputy Inspector General R S Khatra led special investigation team. Notably, the CBI has already filed its closure report in this regard.

Later talking to media outside the House, AAP MLAs Cheema and Arora accused the Congress-led government of having "failed miserably" on all the fronts.

Arora said nothing had come out of the investigations into the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in the last four years and demanded a white paper on the same.

Arora said they had moved an adjournment motion on the issue of high power tariff, which he claimed was burning holes in consumers' pocket.

He further said a 15-day notice was mandatory to enable members to do spade work in order to participate in debate on any proposed bill and added that the bills were tabled without the knowledge of the members, who described the move as "denigrating" the honour of the elected members.

Meanwhile, Punjab Assembly passed two Bills the Punjab Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the Maharaja Bhupinder Singh Punjab Sports University Bill, 2019.

The Punjab Excise Bill seeks to regulate the production of liquor in manufacturing units while the Sports University Bill seeks to set up a sports university to promote sports education in the state.