U'khand: Assembly passes 8 bills, supplement budget amid protests by Congress; House adjourned sine die

Gairsain (U'khand), Aug 20 (PTI) Eight bills and supplementary demands for grants were passed in the Uttarakhand Assembly amid din on Wednesday as Congress MLAs protested in the House alleging rigging in the state panchayat elections and "deterioration" of the law and order situation.

The bills included the Uttarakhand Minority Education Bill, the Religious Freedom (Amendment) Bill, and the Uttarakhand Democracy Fighters Honour Bill.

The House was adjourned sine die before lunch on Wednesday, ending a monsoon session that lasted just one and a half days.

On the first day of the Monsoon session on Tuesday, Congress members had demanded a discussion on the panchayat election issues through an adjournment motion. They started a sit-in in the House itself after their demands were not met and spent the whole night on the Assembly floor.

During the sit-in, Assembly Speaker Ritu Khanduri Bhushan and Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami tried to persuade the opposition MLAs to end the protest, but they refused.

On Wednesday, when the proceedings were to begin at 11 AM, the Congress members stood in front of the Speaker's chair. As soon as she entered the House, they again started raising anti-government slogans, reiterating their demands.

The Speaker urged them to take their seats, but they ignored her request. Following this, the proceedings of the House were adjourned for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, the BJP MLAs raised slogans of "Sharm Karo, Sharm Karo" (Shame on you), criticising the Congress for not allowing the Question Hour to continue. It was followed by a heated exchange of words between the treasury and opposition benches.

As the uproar continued, the proceedings were again adjourned till noon and then for the third time till 12.30 PM, due to which the Question Hour could not be held for the second consecutive day.

At 12:30 PM, amid noisy protests by the opposition, the government began addressing Wednesday's legislative agenda. The Rs 5,315.37 crore supplementary demands from grants for 2025–26, tabled on Tuesday, was passed by voice vote without discussion.

All eight bills, including the Uttarakhand Minority Education Bill, the Religious Freedom (Amendment) Bill, and the Uttarakhand Democracy Fighters Honour Bill, were also passed in the same manner amid continued noise and sloganeering.

Outside the House, Congress MLA from Haldwani, Sumit Hrdayesh, alleged, "The police, which are responsible for law and order, are engaged in breaking it. The courage of criminals has increased so much that they are first attacking MLAs and now even the leader of the opposition." "The SSP of Nainital is filing false affidavits regarding this incident, which happened just one-and-a-half kilometres from the Uttarakhand High Court, and the government is protecting him," he alleged.

The Congress had accused the ruling BJP of kidnapping some of its Zila Panchayat members to prevent them from casting their votes in the election in Nainital and their family members had approached the Uttarakhand High Court, which is hearing the matter.

The High Court on Tuesday expressed concern over law and order in the state, taking note of the alleged kidnapping of five Nainital Zila Panchayat members, and directed the home secretary and director general of police to appear before it on Friday.

Chief Justice G Narendra and Justice Subhash Upadhyay also expressed displeasure over the functioning of the police while hearing a PIL regarding alleged violence in the Nainital panchayat polls.

Dismissing the Congress' allegations of rigging in the panchayat elections, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had on Tuesday said it has become the opposition party's habit to make allegations like "vote theft" and EVM hacking to save face after the defeat. PTI DPT APL OZ APL RT RT