Uproar over Tawi project

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 23

Uproarious scenes were witnessed in the Legislative Assembly after Minister of State for Tourism Priya Sethi furnished a “wrong reply” on the Tawi lake project.

Opposition parties also raised hue and cry over the issue and grilled the minister for giving the misleading reply to a question of BJP legislator Gagan Bhagat, who had sought the details of the lake project.

After Bhagat walked out from the House after tearing the reply and throwing it, National Conference and Congress legislators, too, staged a walkout overdiscriminatory attitude of the government towards tourism in Jammu and not furnishing satisfactory answer.

The uproar started over the Tawi lake project which is under construction since November, 2010. The BJP MLA had asked what was the present status of the project. The government replied that 80 per cent of the work had been completed.

Terming the answer as misleading, Bhagat alleged it amounted to deceiving the people of Jammu.

Opposition MLAs Devender Singh Rana, Vikar Rasool and Javed Rana also jumped in and demanded answer from the government. Pawan Gupta, Independent legislator from Udhampur, who was also a part of Council of Ministers during Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s tenure, also attacked government. Before staging the walkout, the Opposition MLAs raised slogans and registered their protest by coming close to the Well of the House.

As Priya was not able give a satisfactory answer to her party’s legislator query and Opposition members, Minister for Education Naeem Akhter intervened but to no avail.