Oppn Cong boycotts proceedings of U'khand Assembly

Opposition Congress Wednesday boycotted the proceedings of Uttarakhand Assembly and staged a dharna outside Vidhan Sabha Bhawan's gate for hours in protest after a party legislator was not permitted to enter its precincts in his official vehicle.

Congress MLAs sat on a dharna a few paces away from the main entrance of the Vidhan Sabha Bhawan. The protest was led by Leader of Opposition Indira Hridayesh and PCC president Pritam Singh who represents the Chankrata constituency.

They refused to attend the proceedings of the House, saying there was no point in it as the assembly had failed to protect the prestige of its members.

The entire business listed for the pre-lunch session was conducted in the absence of the Opposition members with repeated attempts by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Pant failing to pacify the MLAs who sat on dharna for several hours.

Trouble began as Congress MLA Karan Mahra arrived at the Vidhan Bhawan in his official car to attend the second day's proceedings of the assembly's ongoing winter session.

He was intercepted by a police official who asked him to produce a vehicle pass.

Mahra said the vehicle belonged to the assurance committee of the assembly which is headed by him and a pass was not required.

However, the police official insisted on a pass and asked the MLA to get down and walk into the House.

This enraged the MLA who sat on a dharna outside the gate in protest demanding the suspension of the official in question.

He was immediately joined by Hridayesh and a host of other party legislators.

Mahra alleged that the tiff at the gate was stage-managed as he was going to question the state government's failure to appoint a Lokayukta despite its much publicised zero tolerance to corruption on the floor of the House and the state government did not have the guts to face the difficult question.

"The state government is evasive. It did not want the proceedings of the House to go on smoothly today as it had no answer to the questions of the Opposition," he said.

Hridayesh, who is the senior most member of the assembly, said she had never seen something like this being done to a legislator in her long legislative career.

Pant said the the official in question had been attached with the police lines as a punishment but that failed to assuage the flared tempers with the MLAs insisting on nothing less than his immediate suspension.

"The official being sent to police lines is no punishment as he could be brought back any day. We demand his suspension immediately. A probe could follow," Hridayesh said.