MP monsoon session begins, House pays tributes to departed

The monsoon session of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly began today with the House paying tributes to leaders and prominent personalities who died recently.

As the House assembled on the opening day, Speaker Sitasharan Sharma mentioned about the demise of former MLAs and ministers and also well-known personalities.

Among them were former Himachal Pradesh governor Urmila Singh (71), who died on May 29 due to a prolonged illness, and noted Hindi film lyricist and poet Nandram Das Bairagi (87), popularly known as Balkavi Bairagi.

Bairagi, who died on May 13, was a former member of the Lok Sabha as well as the Rajya Sabha.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recalled the contributions made by Singh, Bairagi and others to the society.

He also paid tributes to former Union ministers L P Shahi and Siddu Nyamagouda, who died recently.

Shahi, a senior Congress leader, died on June 9 at the age of 98.

Nyamagouda (70), a former Union minister who was elected to the Karnataka Assembly on a Congress ticket last month, died in a road accident on May 28.

The House also paid rich tributes to five other former MLAs - Dashrath Jain, Maharaj Singh, Rajendra Singh, Hemchand Yadav and Nirmal Hirawat.

Deputy Speaker Rajendra Singh, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Ajay Singh, BSP Legislature Party leader Satyaprakash Sakhwar and senior MLA Kailash Chawla also paid tributes to the departed leaders by remembering their works.

Later, the speaker and members observed a two-minute silence following which the House was adjourned for five minutes.