Punjab assembly witnesses unruly scenes; verbal spat between AAP, Cong MLAs

Chandigarh, Jul 11 (PTI) The Punjab assembly on Friday witnessed noisy scenes, with Congress MLAs staging a brief walkout over the Abohar businessman murder incident and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and some AAP MLAs engaging in a verbal spat with Congress's Partap Singh Bajwa.

As the proceedings began on the second day of the special session, Leader of Opposition Bajwa raised the issue of the murder of businessman Sanjay Verma in Abohar on July 7 by three assailants and demanded a discussion over the issue.

Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan told Bajwa that they will get enough time to raise their issues but he did not accede to his demand, telling him since it is a special session, there is no Zero hour.

After his request for a discussion was denied by the speaker, Bajwa and other party MLAs rushed to the Well of the House, raising the law and order issue in the state.

In the meantime, Sandhwan said the ongoing session has been extended by two days till July 15 following the recommendation of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC).

After the Congress MLAs came back to their seats, heated exchanges erupted between Cabinet minister Harpal Singh Cheema and Congress leader Bajwa after the AAP leader alleged that Congress had allegedly patronised gangsters.

"Did not you patronize gangsters? Who patronized them? Who brought (gangster-turned-politician) Mukhtiar Ansari to Punjab (jail)," asked Cheema.

He reminded Bajwa of his old statement regarding Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia, as the verbal duel continued between both the leaders despite Sandhwan urging them to remain calm.

Cheema even accused Bajwa of having a "link" with the BJP, alleging that he got a cyber crime FIR registered against the AAP.

"People have come to know that Bajwa has good relations with BJP. The cat is out of the bag," he alleged As the mic of Bajwa was not turned on, much of what he said was not audible.

Bajwa alleged that he was not allowed to reply to Cheema's allegations and along with other MLAs again reached the Well and shouted slogans against the state government.

The Speaker asked the protesting Congress MLAs whether they have anything to say about the BAC recommendations.

However, they did not reply and staged a walk out of the House.

Punjab minister Barinder Goyal moved a resolution against the Centre's move of deploying CISF personnel at dams managed by the Bhakra Beas Management Board.

During discussion on the resolution, Bajwa slammed the AAP regime, alleging that the entire government is running on "optics" and the assembly was being used as a "stage".

Though he hailed the resolution, he asked the AAP government why it has not deployed the Punjab Police at the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh if they are so serious against the CISF deployment at the Bhakra-Nangal dam.

Cabinet minister Arora took exception to Bajwa's remark and said he called the assembly as a "stage", dubbing it "absurd and ridiculous", demanding a privilege motion against the leader of opposition.

"Whatever he said was absurd. I seriously object to what he called the pious assembly as a stage. You must be a stage artist. This is ridiculous. Are you artists. He (Bajwa) is challenging the wisdom of 3 crore people," said Arora as he took on Bajwa.

On not deploying Punjab Police at the civil secretariat, Arora told Bajwa that the building is located in Chandigarh and it is under the jurisdiction of the Centre.

Taking on the Congress, Arora said the then Amarinder Singh government in Punjab had permitted CISF deployment at Punjab jails.

After Arora made some remark, Bajwa took an exception to it, following which there were unruly scenes in the House.

The Congress MLA rushed to the Well of the House to register their protest against Arora's remark.

Later, verbal duel was witnessed between Mann and Bajwa when the former advised the LoP not to rake up unnecessary issues in the House.

Bajwa tried to target the Mann government over the land pooling scheme as the heated exchanges continued.

Unruly scenes were again witnessed after some time after Bajwa made some remark when the chief minister said the opposition will have sufficient time to raise their issues.

Mann and his party MLAs rose from their seats and raised objection to Bajwa's remark, leading to noisy scenes in the House. PTI CHS ZMN