SAD, AAP stage walkout in Punjab Assembly on teachers'' issue

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 13

On the ongoing Budget Session in Punjab Assembly on Wednesday, SAD MLAs staged a walkout on the issue of caning of protesting teachers in Patiala.

AAP legislators also raised the issue.

Akali MLAs stormed into the Well of the House.  They raised slogans against the government for lathicharge on teachers before staging a walkout.

Earlier, SAD MLA Bikram Majithia said the party would get an adjournment motion on the issue of harassment of schoolteachers on the roads of the state.

The Ludhiana gangrape case also echoed in the Assembly. The Opposition targeted the CM on the case.

AAP members also walked out of house on the issues of lathicharge on teachers, Ludhiana gangrape, and the deteriorating law and order situation in Punjab.

AAP legislators said the Speaker should allow a debate on issues of employees.

Majithia said the Speaker had a flimsy excuse for not allowing an adjournment on the issue of teachers. They were told that this was not a serious issue, he claimed.

Congress MLA Raj Kumar Verka said the Governor on Tuesday gave a ground report of the state government’s achievements in different fields.

The Speaker pulled up AAP MLA Kultar Singh Sidhwan saying he was making a mockery of the House by making fun of Raj Kumar Verka’s statement in the House.

The Speaker asked Congress MLA Harminder Gill to address the chair and not directly get into argument in the House with the opposition. He also asked SAD MLA Harinderpal Singh Chandumajra to behave.

Gill said the protests if any should be regulated. Do the employees have the right to stand in front of government and hurl abuses?

AAP MLA Budh Ram alleged that 90 per cent of what the governor had said on Tuesday was not true.

HS Phoolka said the Assembly should ensure that the SGPC is run efficiently and that fair elections to the Sikh body were held.

He said the PM in a reply to his letter had written that the SGPC had completed its tenure in December 2016.

A new chief commissioner of election for the SGPC would now be appointed, so the process would be delayed. The House should pass a resolution and write to the Centre that the elections be held immediately, he added.

Meanwhile, SAD leaders Parminder Dhindsa and Bikram Majithia in a press conference accused the AAP of playing second fiddle to the Congress in not extending the budget session.

They accused the Speaker and the ruling party of allowing rebel AAP to sit with AAP members to protect their membership.

They said the division of time to the AAP and rebel AAP members by the Speaker is questionable.

Talking in context of Sukhpal Khaira and HS Phoolka, the Speaker needed to clear the air on the status of those who had resigned. This showed the connivance between AAP rebels and Congress benches, they said.

Dhindsa said the business advisory committee had been hijacked by the Congress .

The AAPs leader of opposition and the rebel AAP members had connived with the Congress, they alleged.