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Pandemonium in UP Assembly

LUCKNOW: With the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha remaining adjourned for almost the entire Question Hour following Opposition protests, Zero Hour on Tuesday was marked by walkouts by Samajwadi Party, the Congress and Rashtriya Lok Dal on separate issues.

Pandemonium prevailed when the House assembled for Question Hour with the Samajwadi Party, BJP, Congress and RLD members storming into the well of the House.

The SP demanded that action be taken against the Etawah SSP and Additional SP against whom an FIR had been lodged in connection with the death of a student in police firing in Saifai on January 9, 2007. The Congress took exception to the newspaper advertisements which criticised the UPA Government.

The BJP and the RLD protested against Chief Minister Mayawati’s statement at a rally in Karnal (Haryana) this past Sunday that a non-Jat would be made the Chief Minister of Haryana. These parties alleged that her statement was an affront to the Jats.

As the din continued, the Speaker, Sukhdev Rajbhar, adjourned the House for 30 minutes and later extended it.

When the House re-assembled for the Zero Hour, the RLD staged a walkout when the Speaker refused to acknowledge the issue of the Chief Minister’s statement raised by the party.

Raising the issue of the newspaper advertisement, Pramod Tiwari of the Congress said the ad was issued by the State Information and Public Relations Department whose duty is to publicise the achievements of the State Government and not criticise the Central Government. Mr. Tiwari said the ad amounted to declaring a war against the Centre and as such violated the federal structure and also the Constitutional responsibility of the Government.

The Samajwadi Party walkout in the Zero Hour followed the Government’s stand on the role of the Etawah SSP in the police firing on students of Chaudhary Charan Singh Post Graduate College in Haivra, Saifai, on January 9, 2007. Demanding arrest of the SSP, Siya Ram Aditya, ASP Ram Pal Gautam and four constables who have been named in the FIR, Shivpal Singh Yadav (former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh’s brother) said threatening calls were being made to the students of the college.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Lalji Verma said that the SSP was not involved in the firing on students.

Meanwhile, Dharampal (DP) Yadav merged his Rashtriya Parivartan Dal with the Bahujan Samaj Party. Mr Yadav made this announcement in the Assembly. The party has two MLAs, Mr. Yadav and his wife.

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