House rejects motion to reintroduce pvt member’s bill

On division, 25 MLAs voted in favour of bill while 37 voted against it

Raipur, March 15, 2013

The state assembly on Friday rejected principal opposition’s motion to reintroduce private member’s bill seeking amendment in rules of Chhattisgarh Lok Ayog. “The debate over the bill is beyond competence of the House and does not deserve consideration, hence, I urge the House to reject its reintroduction,” said parliamentary affairs minister Brijmohan Agrawal. With stalemate between the ruling and opposition members over reintroduction of the bill, Speaker Dharamlal Kaushik tried to obtain a decision through voice vote but every time Congress urged for division. On division, 25 legislators from Congress voted in favour of the bill while 37 MLAs of ruling party voted against it and eventually the House rejected the motion to reintroduce the bill.

Earlier, when Congress MLA Mohammad Akbar, who had drafted the bill, stood up to reintroduce it, Agrawal interrupted him and said he opposed the bill as many of its clauses and recommendations would affect more than ten laws of the state.

“Besides, the amendment bill on Lok Ayog is already pending in the parliament. Let the Centre pass it then we will discuss on this private member’s bill,” Agrawal said.

The leader of the opposition Ravindra Choubey said Agrawal could not oppose the bill before its reintroduction. “The minister cannot deprive Akbar to reintroduce the bill. It is really unfortunate and I condemn it,” Choubey said.

“By not holding debate on the bill, the ruling party is conveying message that it is in favour of corruption and does not want to strengthen Lok Ayog,” he said.

Congress MLA Dharamjeet Singh too urged Agrawal to let Akbar had his say.

The entire opposition members stood up and alleged that Agrawal was suppressing Akbar’s voice.

“It is really surprising that the BJP supports Anna Hazare’s demand of strong Lokpal at Centre but does not want same in the state. In Chhattisgarh, the Lok Ayog does not have separate team to probe into graft complaints. It rather depends on the government for investigation. In addition, the Lok Ayog is only allowed to recommend for action against the guilty ones and the state government never takes action,” Akbar said.

Agrawal indicated that section 10 of proposed private bill seeks court rights for Lok Ayog which was not possible. “This is how the judiciary system will collapse,” he said.

Choubey said by not holding debate on the bill the ruling party was starting wrong tradition. “If the government has objection on some clauses of the bill, we will make changes. However, it seems it does not want to deal graft cases seriously and do not want to strengthen Lok Ayog,” he added.