The "unruly" scenes in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly today left over 50 visiting students "dejected" while Education minister Naeem Akhtar broke down and "regretted" his move to bring the children to witness the the proceeding of the House.
As soon as the House assembled in the morning, the opposition National Conference and Congress lawmakers started disrupting the proceedings, accusing the government of misleading people on the issue of transfer of power projects to the state, as Speaker directed marshaling out of some members.
Minister for Education Akhtar requested the opposition members to allow the proceedings of the House to continue, however the opposition MLAs continued with their protest.
"Please calm down and let me speak on the issue of these children, they have come here to see the proceedings when the issue concerning their future would be discussed. What impression they would carry with them when they return from here," Naeem Akhtar told the House.
Later, when the House was adjourned by the Speaker Kavinder Gupta, Akhtar broke down while speaking to the media. "We had brought the school children to show them the proceeding of the House, we wanted to show them how we frame the policies in the education sector... I am really disappointed with the way opposition members behaved," he said.
Akhtar said he was concerned about the impression the school children would carry with them. "They are the future and we should have presented an example for them to follow," he said.
The school students who had come to see the proceedings of the House said that they never expected that the lawmakers would behave this way.
"Opposition is a part of democracy, but we never expected that they would behave in such a way. We had come to witness how our lawmakers discuss the issues that concern the future of the state, but we feel dejected and disappointed of what we witnessed today," Kritika Sharma, a student of the Government Girls Higher Secondary school, Mubarakh Mandi said.
Rohail Shamim, a student from Ranbir Higher Secondary School, said that he had come with a lot of expectations. "I had a lot of expectations as it was for the first time in my life I came to see the proceedings of the house, but all my expectations were shattered".
