Opposition rakes graft charges against Virbhadra, stalls

Unruly scenes were witnessed in Himachal Assembly today as the Opposition demanding a discussion on the corruption charges levied against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, tried to stall the proceedings, prompting the Speaker to adjourn the House.
As soon as the House assembled, BJP member Rajiv Bindal demanded a discussion on the matter, which was rejected by the Speaker who maintained that it was subjudice.
The agitated BJP members continued to interrupt the House, while leader of the opposition P K Dhumal appealed to the Speaker to protect the rights of the members.
He alleged that the microphones in the House were on when the ruling party members were speaking but switched off when Opposition members wanted to say something.

The stalemate ended as the Speaker B B L Butail announced that the discussion on the issue would be held on the last day of the Assembly session on December 4.
The matter would be discussed under Rule 130 on the concluding day, he said.

At the onset of the session, Dhumal had raised the issue of cancellation of permission to BJP for holding a rally on December 2 at Zorawar Park near the Tapovan Vidhan Sabha complex.
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Thakur said BJP has been claiming that the Assembly polls slated for 2017 would be held in 2016 to create confusion.

"The election would be held as scheduled in 2017 and the Congress party would repeat its success on the basis of developmental works done by the government and BJP would remain in opposition," he said.
Hitting out at the opposition for disrupting the House proceedings, the minister said, "BJP members are not aware of parliamentary democracy and conventions. When we were in opposition, we also used to raise issues but we never disrupted the Question Hour like they are doing now.
"The government spends thousands of rupees and it takes a lot of time to collect the information forquestions asked by the members," he said.

The Speaker, meanwhile, reiterated that there was no anomaly in the proceedings and the cut motions of BJP members were rejected when put those to vote.
"I challenge you to prove that the proceedings have been tampered with, or I will take action against you," the Speaker told BJP members as he repeatedly read out the proceedings for clarification.