Ruckus in Rajasthan Assembly as opposition rakes up loan waiver, Gujjar reservation

Noisy scenes were witnessed on Monday in Rajasthan Assembly as Opposition created an uproar over farm loan waiver issue and five per cent reservation to Gujjars, prompting Speaker to adjourn the House twice. Amid uproar, Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Amendment Bill, 2019 and Rajasthan Municipality Amendment Bill, 2019 were passed in the House by voice vote. The bills were tabled to scrap educational qualification for contesting panchayat and municipal elections that the previous BJP government had introduced.

The previous Vasundhara Raje-led government had introduced education criterion in 2015 which required a candidate to pass class 10 for contesting zila parishad, panchayat samiti and municipal elections. For contesting elections for Sarpanch of a panchayat in scheduled and other than scheduled areas, it was mandatory to pass class 5 and 8, respectively. Later, the House was adjourned till February 13.

As soon as the Zero Hour started, opposition BJP legislators raised the issue of farm loan waiver whereas BSP, CPIM and RLTP members demanded the government to clear its stand over five per cent reservation to Gujjars. The leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria raised the issue of farm loan waiver in the assembly, saying the Congress government deceived farmers of the state by luring them to waive-off loans within 10 days after coming to power.

"The state government should give details of the loan it has waived and how much funds government has deposited in bank accounts of farmers. The government should clear its policy and intention," Kataria said. In reply, state urban development minister Shanti Dhariwal said opposition BJP had not specified how many farmers will benefit when it announced loan waiver of Rs 50,000.

Objecting to the minister's comment, BJP legislators trooped into the well and shouted slogans against the Congress government. The uproar continued for nearly half-an-hour. Speaker C P Joshi asked the BJP legislators to go back to their seats. But, the BJP legislators continued shouting slogans against the state government and Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

On the other hand, BSP legislators Joginder Singh Awana, Wajib Ali and Rajendra Gudha, CPI(M) leaders Balwan Punia, Girdhari Lal, RLTP leader Hanuman Beniwal also trooped into the well demanding the government to recommend the Centre for five per cent reservation to Gujjars. Amid noisy scenes, the Speaker adjourned the House for an hour till 2 pm.

As the House resumed BJP legislators once again trooped into the well taking up farm loan waiver issue, but the Speaker did not pay any heed and continued with the proceedings. After 10 minutes, Speaker requested members of the House to go back to their seats and participate in debate and then adjourned the House for the second time for more than 1.35 hours.

BJP legislators continued shouting slogans as the House passed two bills scrapping educational qualification for contesting panchayat and municipal elections. Earlier, newly elected Congress legislator from Ramgarh constituency Safia Zuber Khan was administered the oath by the Speaker. The poll on the seat was held on January 28 as it could not be held along with other constituencies due to the death of the BSP candidate ahead of the December 7 assembly polls.

(With inputs from agencies.)