Arshi terms Assembly incident shameful

Bathinda, June 23

Former MLA and state secretary of the CPI, Punjab, Hardev Singh Arshi, today said a shameful incident took place yesterday in the Punjab Legislative Assembly.

He said it had defamed the image of elected representatives in the state.

All parties are responsible for it and nobody can be spared, he added.

Arshi said the state government and the Speaker were responsible for maintaining order in the Assembly and they failed to do so.

This budget session remains the smallest ever in the history of the Punjab assembly.

Congress has two-third majority in the Assembly but still they had resorted to such an act.

Even when the Congress was in the opposition, they demanded for an extended session every time, he added.

Arshi said if the budget session was long, the opposition got time to express its concerns in the Assembly.

He said there were many people in the state government who used wrong words, which might lead to the session going in a wrong direction.

The Speaker is common for every party but Rana KP Singh failed to control the situation in the Assembly, he added.

Arshi said in 1999, the Akali government had also suspended Congress and CPI MLAs for a session but they were not told to leave the assembly as it happened this time. — TNS