Haryana Cong MLA moves breach of privilege notice against BJP

Congress MLA Raghuvir Singh Kadian has moved a notice of breach of privilege in the Haryana Assembly against BJP legislator Mool Chand Sharma accusing him of "divulging" the proceedings of a House panel to the media, a charge denied by the latter.
A section of the media had claimed that the Assembly's Committee on Public Undertakings had on Monday reportedly given clean chit to senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka in a case related to alleged irregularities in purchase of galvalume sheets by Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC) during his tenure as its managing director in 2009.
They had quoted the panel's chairman Sharma saying that the paragraph regarding charges against Khemka has been dropped.

Kadian today said he has moved the Breach of Privilege Notice under Rule 281 of the Rules of Procedure and for contempt of the House on the charge that Sharma has "divulged the proceedings" of the committee to the media.
"It is a settled practice that the proceedings of the House are treated as confidential and it is not permissible for any member of the panel or anyone who has accesses to those proceedings to communicate directly or indirectly to the media or any other person any information regarding the proceedings including report or any conclusion arrived at finally or tentatively before the report is presented to the House," he said.

Kadian said as the final report in the matter is yet to be prepared and presented to the House, "divulging the proceedings of the committee is clear-cut breach of privilege and contempt of the House."

"I have also written to Speaker Kanwarpal Gurjar to direct Sharma to get my dissenting view on the matter examined by the committee," he said.
When contacted, Sharma denied that he had given any statement to the media.
"I have not given any statement to the media. Who am I to give clean chit to anybody? I have not spoken to anyone about what transpired in the House Committee," Sharma said.