Khattar, Hooda take swipes at each other
OPPN AND TREASURY BENCHES INDULGE IN HEATED ARGUMENTS OVER THE ISSUE OF DISBANDED INDUSTRIAL SECURITY FORCE
CHANDIGARH : Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and leader of the opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda took swipes at each other amid an uproar in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday over the issue of the plight of a large number of personnel of the erstwhile industrial security force who had lost their jobs about a decade ago.
The pandemonium erupted instantly after speaker Gian Chand Gupta announced to resume the discussions on the governor’s address after the Question Hour got over and all Congress legislators got on their feet urging Gupta to allow them to raise various issues in the Zero Hour.
Gupta said he opted to skip it as they hardly had any issues to raise during the Zero Hour on Monday.
However, when allowed to have a Zero Hour, senior Congress legislator Kiran Choudhry raised the issue pertaining to the erstwhile industrial security force.
She was referring to the force which was formed by the then Indian National Lok Dal government and disbanded due to various technicalities and objections under the Hooda regime leaving about 3,000 personnel without job. The then Congress government adjusted some of the personnel in the police department. Later, the BJP government also adjusted some of them.
On this Home minister Anil Vij retorted that it was the the previous Congress government which had disbanded the force.
The situation aggravated when Hooda questioned Vij if he had ever raised the issue during the past decade and Vij at the top of his voice said he did, but Hooda acted like a dictator as a chief minister.
This provoked all Congress MLAs, including Geeta Bhukkal, Raghubir Kadian, BB Batra, Jagbir Malik, Shakuntala Khatak, Jaivir Balmiki and Aftab Ahmed who asked Vij to apologise for having spoken in such a manner to Hooda. Vij, However, repeated his remarks and added that Hooda always stifled the voice of all the MLAs. Hooda then sought Khattar’s intervention.
However, even as Khattar asked the opposition MLAs not to politicise an issue in the Zero Hour, the din continued for long. Hooda asked Khattar to mention about the Congress government’s gesture to adjust some of those personnel like the BJP government.
Khattar accused Congress MLAs of adopting a shrewd move to take up the security personnel’s issue to corner the BJP despite the fact that it was the Congress which disbanded it.
Hooda refuted the charges and said disbanding the industrial security force was a compulsion, but the then Congress government did adjust some of them.
Kiran Chaudhry said it was on humanitarian grounds that she had raised the issue. She said while she was talking with a positive attitude, it was unfortunate that Vij derailed the entire discussion. Vij, however, insisted that Choudhry must admit that it was the Congress which was responsible for all the miseries the personnel of the disbanded force were undergoing.