Ranchi, Mar 10 (PTI) The Jharkhand assembly on Tuesday witnessed a war of words between the treasury and opposition benches over “deteriorating” law and order, “dominance” of bureaucracy and alleged corruption in the state, while AJSU Party MLA Nirmal Mahato was marshalled out for creating a ruckus in the House. During the Question Hour, Leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi cited instances of law and order breach in Giridih and Pakur districts, and claimed that the Hemant Soren-led government, which described itself as ‘Abua sarkar’ (our government), has turned ‘Babua’. He was alluding to the government being run by ‘babus’ (bureaucrats and office heads of various departments).
He also alleged that government ‘babus’ have become “unruly” and that “corruption was rampant in government offices”.
Marandi demanded that an immediate discussion be held on the law and order situation in the state, and the remaining work of the House be suspended.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Radhakrishna Kishore countered the leader of the opposition’s allegations, stating that the House runs according to rules.
He reminded that the Business Advisory Committee had held a meeting a day ago and said the opposition had not raised these issues in that discussion.
Kishore alleged that the opposition was trying to disrupt the House proceedings only to remain in the media spotlight.
At one point in time, JMM leader and cabinet minister Sudivya Kumar and the AJSU party legislator were engaged in a heated debate.
Mahato went into the well of the House and shouted slogans against the government over law and order and corruption issues.
Unable to run the proceedings, Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato ordered that the AJSU Party legislator be marshalled out.
Marandi took strong objection to the Speaker’s ruling and alleged that the AJSU Party MLA was provoked to enter the well of the House.
Kishore appealed to the opposition MLAs to remain calm, stating that the House’s proceedings are governed by rules.
He said, “All of you should remain seated and raise any questions as per the rules. The government is fully prepared to respond to every question.” Following the parliamentary affairs minister’s request, the Speaker asked Nirmal Mahato to rejoin the proceedings.
CPI(ML) MLA Arup Chatterjee raised issues related to the education system in linguistic-minority schools.
He claimed that children studying in grades 1 to 6 in several minority schools across the state should also be provided with textbooks, uniforms, cycles and scholarships as these benefits are given for government schools.
State minister Sudivya Sonu claimed that minority schools do not come under the government school category, and hence, uniforms and scholarships could not be provided.
He, however, assured that the MLA’s proposal for providing uniforms and scholarships to students in minority schools would be put before the department for a policy decision. PTI ANB BDC
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