Cong boycott Assembly proceedings for today

     Raipur, March 24, 2011: Members from the main opposition Congress today boycotted the day’s proceedings from the Chhattisgarh Assembly over disrespect to their party MLAs.

     During question hour, former Home Minister and senior Congress leader Nand Kumar Patel wanted to know when he was made chief guest by the Kharsia Government officials in a farmers conference why that was cancelled last moment and said it was done deliberately to humiliate him.

     Replying to the question, Agriculture Minister Chandrasekhar Sahu said the programme was not cancelled to humiliate any one.

     Hearing this, agitated Patel demanded action against the official, who had cancelled that meeting saying instead of protecting the official the Minister should take action against him, else he would be forced to boycott the proceeding for the day.

     Also accusing the government of remaining silent on disrespect to the people’s representatives, Patel said he was boycotting the proceeding and went out of the house.

     Speaker Dharam Lal Kaushik said disrespect to any people’s representative was never a good thing and the government should also ensure that no such incident takes place.

     Mohammed Akbar of Congress taking serious note of the matter said whether from ruling or opposition no members of this house should be disrespected and if action was not taken against that official, the Congress bench would stage a boycott.

     Dharamjeet Singh of Congress also wanted to know why the Government was trying to protect the official, who humiliated Patel.

     Leader of Opposition Ravindra Choubey said they cannot be a spectator to the humiliation meted out to the opposition and demanded the Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh to give a statement on the issue.

     He also said under such condition it was difficult for them to participate in the proceeding and the Congress members and BSP MLA Saurav Singh went out of the house for the day.