Oppn seeks no confidence motion against speaker, stages walkout

Shimla: The opposition led-by leader of opposition Jai Ram Thakur staged a walkout on the fifth day of the 10-day ongoing monsoon session of the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha on Monday after speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania rejected its demand to discuss no confidence motion against him for his alleged ‘dictatorial behaviour’ and discussion on non-payment of salaries to employees besides pension till now under point of order during the question hour.BJP legislator from Sullah and Vidhan Sabha’s former speaker Vipin Singh Parmar pressed for the discussion of these issues as soon as the proceedings for the day started. The opposition MLAs had already in the day submitted a resolution for the removal of speaker from the post under Rule 274 to the Vidhan Sabha secretary claiming that the speaker had not tendered an apology for his ‘objectionable comments’ against the nine MLAs during a function in the run up to the Vidhan Sabha bypoll earlier.“There is no such issue under the consideration of the Vidhan Sabha secretariat as no such issue falls within the purview of the rules and procedure of the Vidhan Sabha and under the Constitution also,” ruled the speaker. He also made it clear that the point of order under Rule 67 cannot be allowed during the question hour since there is no such convention and the opposition can take up its issue after the question hour under Rule 130. Pathania also underlined that the House proceedings will go as per rules. The BJP legislators, who had stood up at their seats raising slogans against the speaker, staged a walkout from the House after 15 minutes.Condemning the opposition’s walkout as a ‘political drama’, parliamentary affairs minister Harshwardhan Chauhan termed opposition’s protest as ‘height of their bankruptcy’ and inability to raise public welfare questions in the Vidhan Sabha. He asserted that the opposition has no right to move the resolution against the speaker under Rule 274. The speaker said most of the questions listed for the day were of the opposition on which the govt has to reply and whether they are interested or not is up to the opposition.CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu asserted that it is a historical monsoon session which has 10 sittings and the speaker also given sufficient time to the opposition even more than the treasury benches and the BJP legislators are not interested in discussing public issues but wasting House’s time.Later, LoP-led BJP MLAs also met governor Shiv Pratap Shukla at the Raj Bhawan and submitted a memorandum demanding removal of the speaker for his “dictatorial behaviour” and also raising the issue of financial crises in the state as the employees and pensioners were awaiting their dues even on the second day of the month. Thakur said that when the resolution under rule 274 is submitted, the speaker does not chair the House proceedings but here the situation is surprising.₹1,247 crore spent on power subsidyChief minister Sukhu informed the House that since April 2022, the state govt has provided an electricity subsidy worth Rs 1,247 crore as 125 free power units per month to domestic consumers. He added that the previous BJP government had taken this decision of free power just six months before going to the last legislative assembly elections but despite this the saffron party could not return to power. This year, the state government will have to bear the burden of nearly Rs 2,200 crore on account of power subsidy by paying it to the electricity board, he added. The CM emphasised that the Congress govt has taken various measures to make the state independent as the previous BJP govt has put the state into financial crises since there are already 14 different kinds of subsidies being provided by the state govt. He announced that the state govt will take some more decisions in the next six months to provide the financial situation of the state and present a healthy budget next year.Damage by vertical cutting of hillocks Vertical and 90 degree cutting of hillocks for construction of roads and 4-laning of highways has caused massive damage in various districts of the state and re-alignment besides tunnelling is the need of the hour to mitigate losses, said public works department minister Vikramaditya Singh in the Vidhan Sabha. He added that the cloudburst incidents at various places are a matter of serious concern which demands deliberations and expert advice from various quarters to find a way out. The minister assured that the state government has learnt many lessons from the last year’s monsoon disaster and has taken affirmative action at various levels including purchase of machinery – earth movers, poclain excavators and tippers – worth Rs 30 crore to place at various stations for pressing them into service during emergency. But, he quipped that the Himachal government has not got sufficient help from the Centre.Arhtiyas owe ₹25cr to 600 horticulturistsRevenue minister Jagat Singh Negi, in response to a question by Chaupal MLA Balbir Singh Verma, informed the House that 600 horticulturists and farmers are still awaiting their pending payment of over Rs 25 crore from the arhtiyas. He added that it was in 2019, that the state DGP had constituted a special investigation team (SIT) of the intelligence department officials to take action against the accused arhtiyas. But, due to the transfer of staff posted in the SIT, the investigation of the pending cases is being carried out by the investigating officers of the crime branch. The Himachal Pradesh Agricultural and Horticultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, 2005, has been implemented by the govt to ensure payment for the horticulturists’ produce, in which provisions have been made in section 13 and 73 for the recovery of arrears.36% posts vacant in Pachhad hospitals To a question raised by BJP MLA from Pachhad Reena Kashyap, health and family welfare minister Colonel Dhani Ram Shandil (retd) said that out of the 72 approved posts of various categories in civil hospital, Rajgarh, 25 are vacant. Similarly, Sarahan hospital has 20 vacant posts against the total 51 approved and filling up of vacancies is a continuous process. Health minister Col Shandil added that almost all formalities of the blood storage center at the civil hospital of Rajgarh were complete and only medical officer’s training is left after which the state drug controller will be requested to issue a license to this center. He agreed that the fully automatic biochemistry analyser and hematology analyzer (cell counter) machines are very old in this hospital.