Issue sub judice: Speaker justifies not allowing discussion on Nuh

Chandigarh, August 30

Speaker Gian Chand Gupta today justified not allowing discussion on the Nuh violence for it being sub judice.

Holding a press conference, Gupta said he went by the rule book and also read out the rule concerned. When questioned that the Punjab and Haryana High Court was only pursuing demolitions in Nuh, the Speaker replied that the demolitions were connected to the Nuh violence and couldn’t be separated from the riots.

Describing the session from August 25 to August 29 as the longest Monsoon session, Gupta said it went for 19 hours and 36 minutes. “The productivity was 113.83 per cent,” he said.

A total of 60 members participated in the zero hour, including 24 from the BJP, 24 from the Congress, seven from the JJP, one from INLD and four Independent MLAs. During the zero hour, the BJP MLAs were given one hour and 25 minutes, JJP got 23 minutes, Congress got one hour and 16 minutes, INLD got four minutes, and Independents got 16 minutes.

On calling attention motions, Gupta said they received 50 motions but clubbed them into 16 on five different subjects. Four adjournment motions were received while two of them were converted into calling attention motions.

When questioned on Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala’s utterances in the House on violation of rules of procedure, the Speaker said, “The legislative work in the House has been carried as per rules and conventions. I said in the Vidhan Sabha too that in the past, seven times short duration discussions have been turned into calling attention motions. I don’t know why he made such comments.”

For the first time, three MLAs Aseem Goyal, Jogi Ram Sihag and Amit Sihag were awarded the ‘Best MLA Award’.

Demolitions connected to violence

I went by the rule book and also read out the rule concerned. The demolitions were connected to the Nuh violence and couldn’t be separated from the riots. — Gian Chand Gupta, Speaker