Rahul issue rocks Upper House too
PATNA: The issues of disqualification of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha rocked Bihar Legislative Council on Monday, with leaders of the treasury benches terming it as a threat to democracy.
Congress member Madan Mohan Jha raised the matter as point of order as soon as the upper house assembled for the question hour. He said the type of action taken against Rahul Gandhi for “speaking truth” was as “black spot” in the history of Indian democracy. “Rahul Gandhi’s membership was taken away when he raised his voice against misuse of wealth and rampant loot of public money,” Jha said, adding that it was for the first time in the country’s history of 167 years that anybody has been awarded the maximum punishment in the defamation case, which actually was framed on wrong premises.
Countering it, BJP member Sanjay Paswan said the union government was only remotely linked to the case. “It is matter of court and discussing it would be tantamount to the contempt of court. It’s waste of time discussing this matter in this House,” he said. Paswan’s contention raised vociferous protests from the ruling parties’ members. Jha claimed the court (of chief judicial magistrate, Surat) had given 30 days to challenge the judgment, but the Lok Sabha did not wait even for a day.
JD(U) member Niraj Kumar countered Paswan and said Gandhi’s disqualification was a wellplanned design of the union government. Lambasting the BJP for turning Rahul Gandhi’s statement on “Modi” as insult to the backward classes, Kumar claimed the Centre had discontinued scholarship for backward and extremely backward classes, named after Jagjivan Ram, for past many years.
Former health minister and BJP member Mangal Pandey sough to expunge the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the proceedings, while other members, including Congress’s Prem Chandra Mishra, stood on their chair to add to the debate. However, council chairman Devesh Chandra Thakur ignored them and started the question hour.
State to maintain of rural roads pending Delhi’s assistance
State revenue and land reforms minister Alok Mehta informed the legislative council that the state government would bear the expenses on maintaining 165 roads and 19 bridges, sanctioned by the Centre under package-III of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, at a cost of around ₹1,441 crore. “Ideally, the Centre shall incur the entire cost maintenance and release the amount on time. However, in the absence of the Central fund, the state government would maintain the roads and claim for reimbursement of the amount later,” said Mehta.
The minister was replying to a query of JD(U) member Niraj Kumar, who sought to know as how the roads, sanctioned under package-III of PMGSY, would be maintained, as the Centre refrained from making the provision for maintenance in the estimate.