Revenue Minister’s written replies will be deemed part of record: Himachal Speaker

Speaker Kuldeep Pathania today ruled that replies furnished by Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi in writing would be deemed to have been laid in the House, as the BJP was boycotting him and not asking him questions in the Vidhan Sabha.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu raised the issue and pointed out that a lot of time and effort go into collecting information on queries sought by the MLAs. “If the Opposition does not wish to ask questions from the Revenue Minister, allow the ruling party legislators to ask supplementary questions, which are all very important,” he added.

The BJP legislators had last week announced that they would boycott the Revenue Minister both in the Assembly and outside over his provocative statements, especially against Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur.

The Speaker said that if a question was not taken up for discussion, how would supplementary questions be asked? “I agree that taxpayers’ money along with a lot of time and effort by various departments go into collecting information but eventually it is the discretion of an MLA whether to ask a question or not,” he added.

He said that he would direct the Vidhan Sabha secretariat to not list questions asked by the opposition MLAs from the Revenue Minister to prevent wastage of time.

The Speaker ruled that he would tag all queries posed by the Opposition to the Revenue Minister to the Chief Minister. He said that a written reply would be deemed to have been laid in the House.

Earlier, Pathania said that when an MLA did not ask a question, the reply could not form part of the House record. Thakur requested the Speaker that the written reply should form part of the record, as it had been laid in the House.

Sukhu said that either any MLA, who did not wish to ask any question, should either leave the House or other MLAs should be allowed to ask supplementary questions. The Revenue Minister said that it seemed that the BJP members were forced to boycott him, as yesterday Churah MLA Hans Raj had asked him a question and he replied to it.