AAP walks out against Ashu’s ‘casteist remark’

› Ashu is a controversial minister and has used bad words against a Dalit.

HARPAL SINGH CHEEMA, leader of opposition

› The matter pertains to a safai karamchari in Ludhiana. I never used any casteist word.

BHARAT BHUSHAN ASHU, food and civil supplies minister

CHANDIGARH: Leader of opposition Harpal Singh Cheema on Monday led a walkout by all MLAs of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), seeking action against food and civil supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu for his alleged anti-Dalit remark.

Cheema said “Ashu is a controversial minister and has used bad words against a Dalit,” and he even offered to play an audio in the House as a proof, but was denied permission to do so.

After this, all AAP legislators left the House, raising slogans against the Punjab government and the minister.

Later Ashu denied the allegations, saying the matter pertained to a safai karamchari in Ludhiana but denied having ever used any casteist word.

Lok Insaaf Party MLA Simarjit Singh Bains raised the custodial death of a married man, Vikas Shukla, in Ludhiana, demanding action against the police.

Bains said Shukla had bought a car from an online trading site and when the deal went wrong, police registered a case of theft against him and arrested him and his wife.

“The police released Shukla’s wife in lieu of ₹25,000 bribe and demanded ₹1 lakh from Shukla, who died at the police station,” he said.

SAD’s leader of the legislative group Sharanjit Singh Dhillon also raised the same issue.

Congress MLA Kulbir Singh Zira asked government to give clarity on the new transport policy, which he said, has not been released by the state government.

He said if there was any problem with the new policy, the advocate general should throw light on it.

Referring to his recent bus travel from Delhi to Rajpura in an Indo-Canadian private bus, Zira said he was charged ₹2,600.

Zira said he travelled with CM’s political secretary Capt Sandeep Sandhu and also purchased a ticket as evidence.

According to him, the buses run by state government on the

same route charge ₹1,200.

CALLING ATTENTION MOTION

AAP legislator Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer diverted the attention of the House towards the pending post-matric SC scholarships.

He asked the social justice and empowerment and minorities minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot to follow states of Maharashtra where SC students are being supported by the state government even if the Central grant is delayed.

Akali Dal MLA Harinderpal Singh Chandumajra raised the issue of adulteration of food products, especially milk and its byproducts curd and paneer.

He added that issue was serious and needed immediate intervention of the government to ensure that the health of the state’s residents was not compromised.