Women dominate proceedings, stand their ground
WOMAN LEGISLATORS NOT ONLY QUIZZED THE MINISTERS ON THE ONGOING POLICE RECRUITMENT AND WOMEN POLICE STATIONS SET UP IN THE STATE, BUT ALSO PUT THEIR POINTS ACROSS ARTICULATELY. THEY ALSO DID NOT MISS ANY OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE JIBES AT OTHERS
CHANDIGARH: Woman MLAs dominated the proceedings during the Question Hour of the monsoon session of the Haryana assembly on Tuesday.
They not only quizzed the ministers on the ongoing police recruitment and women police stations set up in the state, but also put their points across articulately. And, they also did not miss any opportunity to take jibes.
Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal flummoxed parliamentary affairs minister Ram Bilas Sharma when she asked him when the concept of women police station was conceived.
While the minister did not address her query, BJP MLA Latika Sharma interrupted, saying that the present government had started women police stations in the state. Bhukkal told the ruling party legislator that she should let the minister give the reply. But the minister again did not respond to her request for a response. “Aap Gita (scripture) ki baat karte ho aur Geeta ko bolne nahin dete (You quote (Bhagavad) Gita, but don’t let Geeta speak),” she quipped.
Bhukkal then raised the issue of rising crime against women and staff shortage in women police stations, asking the minister why the recruitment started by the Congress government during its tenure was cancelled by the present government. To this, Sharma said the government was also concerned about shortage of staff in women police stations and would recruit 1,000 women police personnel shortly.
But the Congress legislator, who did not seem impressed, told the minister that he had not replied to her query on when the concept was developed. She also advocated zero-tolerance policy on crimes against women.
The exchange between the parliamentary affairs minister and Bhukkal took place during the minister’s reply to Independent MLA Jasbir Singh’s question on the steps by the state government to strengthen security for women and whether there is any move to open women police stations at tehsil level.
Listing the steps taken by the BJP government, Sharma, in his reply, said that women make 6.5% of the police force and the government would recruit more women and take it to 10%.
Right at the outset of the Question Hour, Congress MLA Kiran Choudhry also took on finance minister Capt Abhimanyu on the police recruitment issue. The minister, while responding to a query on initiatives taken to provide clean and transparent administration, said the state government was working on a war footing to introduce information technology to bring transparency in governance.
Reading aloud a list of initiatives, he also took a dig at the previous Congress government. “Pehle number 1 ki bahut baatein hui thi. Par jab dekha toh koi bhi area nahin mila jahan number 1 hon. Akhir number 1 kahan the,” he said. Choudhry said the minister had waxed eloquent about measures taken by his government, but what about the irregularities in police recruitment in the state.
“We have been hearing that some job aspirants had broken the Olympic record during the police recruitment race. Why didn’t you take them to Olympics? They would have won medals,” she said, questioning the minister on the police recruitment process.
While the minister said there was total transparency in the recruitment process, the MLA insisted that the government had got exposed in the matter.
Among the state ministers also, urban local bodies minister Kavita Jain stood her ground on the issue of the government’s strategy to implement ban on polythene bags, firmly responding to supplementary questions and frequent interruptions.
Repllying to INLD legislator Nagender Bhadana’s question on steps taken to impose the ban on use of polythene strictly, the first-time minister said though polythene bags continued to be in use everywhere despite the ban, her department had drawn a strategy to implement the legal provisions and taken action against the suppliers, distributors and users flouting them.
Her long reply led to chuckles and interruptions from the opposition members, but she carried on, talking about her department’s initiatives with earnestness, and even repeatedly sought support of all members of the House in this endeavour. The effort even won her praise from Kiran Choudhry who appreciated the minister for her response.