Dissatisfied with Capt Abhimanyu’s reply, Congress MLAs stage walkout

NAME CALLING AND EXCHANGE OF BARBS AMONG MEMBERS MARRED PROCEEDINGS OF THE HOUSE DURING DISCUSSION ON BUDGET

CHANDIGARH: As name calling and barbs marred the proceedings of the Haryana assembly, all MLAs of the Congress, who termed the budget as directionless and disappointing, staged a walkout on Thursday in protest against what they termed as unsatisfactory reply of the finance minister.

Speaking on the 2017-2018 budget presented by the BJP government, Congress legislature party leader Kiran Choudhry said it was a radarless ship on rough waters and that it would take Haryana in a debt trap. “The increasing debts would soon gobble up the state,” she said. Another Congress MLA Karan Dalal also flayed the budget and accused the Haryana Urban Development authority (HUDA) of cheating people in the name of e-auctioning of plots.

Referring to recent e-auctioning at Panchkula, he alleged that many officials had secured several plots for their kins. “The government should get it inquired into,” he said and added that wages of MNREGA labourers were pending since long.

Even as several Congress and BJP legislators spoke in the discussion on the budget as the sitting was repeatedly extended till 5.30 pm, the Congress MLAs staged a walkout terming finance minister Capt Abhimanyu’s reply on it as unsatisfactory.

SLUGFEST BETWEEN DHANKAR AND DALAL

The House saw heated arguments and name calling between Dalal and agriculture minister OP Dhankar. When Dalal began to speak on crop insurance scheme, Dhankar said the House should not take Dalal seriously at all as he was in the habit of levelling baseless charges and running away instead of proving them. “Dalal is the most unreliable person and the biggest time-killer in the House,” he said repeatedly.

Irked over it, an angry Dalal also said Dhankar was the most corrupt minister as he was looting farmers. Dhankar said that he was open to any probe, though the properties of Dalal should also be examined as he had amassed wealth by corrupt practices. “Ek chor aadmi mere liye aisi baten kar raha hai, yeh sabko apne jaisa samajhta hai (A thief is talking such things about me as he thinks others are also like him), ” he added.