CHANDIGARH: The Budget Session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha resumed on a stormy note today as the members of the principal opposition party walked out of the Assembly after their adjournment motion on law and order situation in the state was disallowed. The question hour saw aggressive sloganeering by the Congress MLAs against Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan and CM Bhagwant Mann.
Terming the Vidhan Sabha Speaker ‘biased, partial and farzi’, Phillaur MLA Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary said the office of the Speaker deserved utmost respect from every member of the Assembly, but Kultar Singh Sandhwan had become a puppet in the hands of ‘Ad Aadmi’ government and had lowered the dignity of the Chair. He said the Speaker should be neutral, but here he was working on the orders of the government, adding that nobody was being allowed to raise the question against the government and the voice of the Opposition was being suppressed.
He said it was extremely regrettable that during the sitting of the Vidhan Sabha, Kultar Singh Sandhwan did not accept the Opposition’s demand to raise the burning issues of Punjab and gave them no time to speak. “But we will not let the ‘Ad Aadmi’ government’s efforts to suppress the voice of the people of Punjab succeed and will continue to raise the voice of Punjabis both in the Vidhan Sabha and on the streets,” he added.
The Opposition members also took strong exception to the presence of Aniket Saxena, brought from Delhi and working with the AAP government, in the Vidhan Sabha. MLA Chaudhary said he was caught red-handed, by him and Gurdaspur MLA Barindermeet Singh Pahra, from his makeshift hacking office in the watch and ward room of the House and was looking after the live transmission of the proceedings even as he had no authority to be there. After he was caught, he was so scared that he ran away from the spot, the Phillaur MLA said.
“It is not Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, but AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal’s handpicked people brought from Delhi such as Aniket Saxena, who are running the affairs in Vidhan Sabha. It appears that Speaker Sandhwan has no independent authority and is working under the thumb of the government. By his outright biased conduct, he has not only lowered the dignity of his chair but also brought disrepute to the entire House,” he said.