Haryana Cong MLAs evicted amid Dadupur canal din

Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 23

Fifteen Congress legislators were named and removed from the Haryana Vidhan Sabha for the day after they refused to let the House function till their adjournment motion on scrapping of the Dadupur Nalvi canal was debated before any other agenda today.

After reasoning with the legislators, Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar asked the watch and ward staff to remove them from the well of the House.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The ruckus started soon after obituary references were made ahead of Question Hour on the first day of the Monsoon Session. Congress legislators stood up demanding to know the fate of the adjournment motion on the Dadupur Nalvi issue. The Speaker told them that the motion had been accepted but he had scheduled the debate for tomorrow.

The Congress legislators, carrying with them the Vidhan Sabha rule book, walked to the well of the House and demanded that if the motion had been accepted, it had to be debated before any other business could be taken up.

While Congress’ Karan Dalal argued with the Speaker, former Speaker Kuldeep Sharma said: “If the adjournment motion has been accepted, a debate on the issue cannot be postponed.”

Unwilling to relent, the Speaker named 15 Congress legislators and was heard telling the watch and ward, “Nikalo inko” (remove them). The MLAs resorted to sloganeering, condemning the “high-handedness” of the Speaker and the government, even as ministers and BJP leaders raised counter-slogans alleging wrongdoing during 10 years of Congress rule.

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kuldip Bishnoi were not present in the House. Hooda had reportedly left for Delhi after being summoned by the party high command.

The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which has opposed the scrapping of the canal in Yamunanagar, later claimed on the floor of the House that the adjournment motion had first been moved by them, but the Congress hijacked it. Party MLA Zakir Hussain said: “It is our adjournment motion, but the Congress has hijacked it.”

Leader of the Opposition Abhay Chautala took a dig at the Congress as well as the ruling BJP. He urged the Speaker to allow the Congress legislators to be present in the House when the issue is discussed because “it is the Congress that failed to build the canal during 10 years in power. Besides, the dug-up earth was stolen during their regime, so we want them to respond to various queries”.

Asking the Speaker to educate the ministers about their role in the House, he said: “It is legislators who stand up and take on the Opposition and not the ministers — you must tell them what they are not supposed to do.”

Congress legislators later termed the Speaker’s action “unconstitutional” and “dictatorial”. Dalal said the decision of the government to scrap the canal was illogical and impractical.

Randeep Surjewala and Kiran Chaudhry said nearly one lakh hectares would become infertile across 225 villages and it would require around Rs 40 lakh per acre to fill the dug canal and make it fit for cultivation.

Kuldeep Sharma cited provisions of the Vidhan Sabha rules to claim the adjournment motion once accepted had to be debated before any other business in the House. However, they were of the unanimous view that by scrapping the Dadupur Nalvi project, the BJP government had justified the scrapping of the Satluj Yamuna Link Canal (SYL) by Punjab, making the case of Haryana weak.