Speaker raps two ministers over ‘unsolicited’ remarks in Assembly

Lucknow: UP Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana expressed displeasure over 'unsolicited' remarks by two senior ministers in the House on Thursday. Mahana took exception to cabinet minister Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi's remarks at the opposition MLAs and another by horticulture minister Dinesh Pratap Singh at himself. Replying to a question by SP's Ghazipur MLA Virendra Yadav, Nandi said it seemed the opposition MLAs were asking questions during the Question Hour with an intent to extort money from industrialists. "I would like to inform the House that this is an era of Yogi govt where no one is allowed to take law in his hands," the minister said. Terming Nandi's remarks as "too strong", the Speaker said the MLA's question was not pointed towards any particular industrialist and asked the minister to refrain from such statements. Mahana added that if the SP MLA's supplementary question was pointed toward any particular industrialist with malicious intent, the minister could have raised concern. Since the question was with regard to general policy, such individual remarks by the minister should be avoided, the Speaker said. In the second incident, minister Dinesh Pratap Singh while replying to a supplementary question from SP MLA Dr Ragini Sonker said he is always forthcoming in getting the works done in the constituencies of MLAs and had even called up the Speaker to ask if any work needs to be done in his constituency. Miffed over Singh's remark, Mahana said, "Being a minister it's your duty to do work for the people through MLAs in their respective constituencies. What's the need to boast about it in the House."