Cong stages walkout over scholarships - Own MLAs corner govt on development
Tuesday, 17/03/2015
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/
Chandigarh : Amid a walkout by the Congress over the Speaker’s decision to postpone a question regarding delay in the release of post-matric scholarships, during the question hour today, the Akali-BJP government, to its dismay, found that its own men had decided to take it on over the issue of development.
Congress members led by Leader of opposition Sunil Jakhar staged a walkout from the Assembly after a question posed by Jakhar and Congress MLA from Fatehgarh Churian Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, seeking to know the amount of scholarships disbursed to SC students, was declared clubbed with another question on stipend given to minority students.
The Opposition wanted Minister for Scheduled Castes Gulzar Singh Ranike to respond to the question, but the Speaker said since the two questions had been clubbed, the minister would be allowed time to respond to these on March 20.
This irked the Opposition members who staged a walkout and protested outside the House, before once again coming back to the Assembly for question hour.
The highlight of the question hour was the taking on of ministers by MLAs from the ruling alliance itself.
MLA from Jagraon SR Kler, MLA from Gill Darshan Singh Shivalik and MLA from Mansa Prem Mittal not only raised the issue of poor pace of development in their constituencies, but also demanded the ministers concerned to give time frame for the completion of these works and institute inquiries for the delay.
Kler sought explanation from the Rural Development and Panchayat minister Sikandar Singh Maluka over the delay in constructing a sewage-treatment plant at Padhiana village in Adampur.
Darshan Singh Shivalik took on Education Minister Daljit Cheema over the issue of transfer of panchayat land in Dhandran village to a society for setting up an Adarsh Senior Secondary School. He said not only were the number of children to be enrolled in the school given incorrectly, the land to be allotted was also measured wrongly. Cheema said he would get an inquiry conducted into the case.
As other MLAs raised the issue of lack of development works being initiated by the government, CM Parkash Singh Badal said Rs 1,500 crore was being set aside for the construction and repair of all link roads in the state.
