Pb assembly witnesses heated exchange between Randhawa, Majithia

The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday witnessed heated exchanges between SAD legislator Bikram Singh Majithia and minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa after the former raised the issue of alleged deteriorating law and order in the state.

During the Zero Hour in the ongoing budget session here, Majithia alleged that there had been an alarming increase in the state's crime rate and incidents of loot, kidnapping, robbery etc. were being reported almost everyday.

Majithia also claimed that gangsters lodged in jail were threatening people on phone and demanding ransom from them as he pointed towards Randhawa who is the jails minister.

Randhawa immediately rose from his seat and slammed Majithia for taking his name in the House. He also said that it was the "weakness" of his government that Majithia had not been put behind bars yet.

The Akalis then stormed the well of the House and shouted slogans against the state government. They then staged a walk out.

During the Question Hour, Majithia also exchanged barbs with forest minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot over the issue of declining arrival of migratory birds at Harike wetland.

Though Dharamsot said the strength of migratory birds rose in the last few years, Majithia pointed out that a report of the world wildlife fund had said that the number of migratory birds declined from 1.23 lakh to 90,000.

Members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also staged a walk out after its MLA Harpal Singh Cheema was not allowed to bring adjournment motion for discussing issues related to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes.

Earlier, Lok Insaaf Party MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains brought a calling attention notice to raise the issue of problems being faced by commuters especially NRIs because of non-plying of government buses from the Delhi airport.

In her reply, transport minister Razia Sultana said despite raising the matter with the Delhi government, the issue was yet to be resolved.

She said the state-owned buses were allowed to ply till ISBT in Delhi and were not allowed to take passengers to the Delhi airport.