Bjp Legislators In Gujarat Suspended For 3 Days

Gujarat governor Krishna Pal Singh yesterday summoned the seventh session of the ninth legislative assembly of the state to consider the annual statement for the coming financial year, make supplementary demands for the current year and transact important statutory business.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party boycotted the governors address and later tried to disrupt the proceedings by entering the well of the house. They had to be removed by the marshals and police.

Speaker Ghurmansinh Vaghela suspended the party from the House for three days.

Inaugurating the budget session, Singh listed the major achievements of the Mahagujarat Janata Party in tackling problems related to drinking water and the Sardar Sarovar project, and assured farmers of crop insurance and traders of free movement of groundnut oil.

 

The agitated BJP members carried on their protests in the speakers chamber where former Chief Minister Suresh Mehta told reporters that the speaker had no right to suspend them as he himself was a disqualified member of the House.

His predecessor Keshubhai Patel compared Chief Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela to his counterpart in another state while Vaghela described the BJPs disruptive activities as a hangover of ill-digested power.

Earlier in his address, the governor said Gujarats annual plan for 1997-98 was 33 per cent more than that for the current year and the largest in the last seven years.

He said the State had drawn up a Rs 4,700 crore master plan for drinking water, apart from the Rs 3,000 crore allotted in the ninth five-year plan, to be implemented by the newly constituted Gujarat Water Authority.

Besides, the export quota of one of the states principal farm products has been doubled from 50,000 to one lakh bales.

The state has set up expert groups on 15 different subjects following a brain-storming seminar conducted by Sam Pitroda in December last year to make important suggestions for the asmita and development of Gujarat.

The installed capacity in the power sector would increase by 600 mw this year so that by the end of the Eighth Plan the target of 6796.6 mw could be crossed.

As on December 1, 1996, there were 2,435 new projects under implementation, accounting for an investment of Rs 1,25,000 crore. Of these projects, 150 were of over Rs 100 crore each.

A total of 7,132 small scale units have been set up this year with an investment of Rs 1.94 lakh, generating employment of 28,000.

The state has 71,260 km of roads and bids have been invited from private entrepreneurs for five road projects costing Rs 1,042 crore. The government will introduce legislation on taxation of luxury hotels, amendment of the co-operative societies act (to replace an ordinance of 1996), a bill on land revenue (replacing an ordinance of 1996) and the sales tax bill.