Punjab assembly witnesses noisy scenes as AAP, BJP, SAD MLAs storm Well

The Punjab assembly on Tuesday witnessed noisy scenes with both the AAP and BJP-SAD legislators separately storming the Well of the House amid slogan shouting and staging walkout over denial of speakers permission to have their say on the last day of the session. While BJP MLAs stormed the Well of the House during Zero Hour over denial of permission to speak on the CBI's closure report in the 2015 cases of desecration of Sikhs' religious text Guru Granth Sahib in the state, AAP MLAs created ruckus for refusal of their adjournment motion on deaths due to drug overdose in the state.

The assembly was adjourned sine die on Tuesday. Soon after the conclusion of the debate on Calling Attention Motions today, the AAP members took to their feet insisting upon the speaker to admit their adjournment motion on spate of deaths due to drug overdose in the state.

But when the speaker refused it, they stormed the Well of the House, raising slogans against the state government for not allowing them to speak on the burning issue. They walked out of the House later. Before the start of the day's proceedings, AAP members held a demonstration outside the House against deaths taking place in Punjab due to the festering drug menace.

Led by Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema, AAP MLA Aman Arora and other party legislators raised slogans against the state government, accusing the Amarinder Singh government of having failed to end the drug problem in the state in keeping with their poll promise to do so within four weeks of assuming power. Arora said the spate of deaths due to drug overdose was no longer limited to young boys only and even women were falling prey to it

There were reports of two women dying in Bathinda and Ludhiana of drug overdose. Earlier during the Zero Hour, the Akali and BJP members also staged a walk out after they were not allowed to speak on the CBI's closure report in the 2015 cases of state-wide desecration of Sikhs' religious text Guru Granth Sahib.

After the chief minister blamed Akalis for "scuttling" the probe into three sacrilege incidents, the Akali and BJP members took to their feet, demanding speaker's permission to speak on the CBI closure report. As speaker denied permission to them, they rushed to the Well, raising slogans against the state government.

Amid the din, they later staged a walk out of the House. Meanwhile, the SAD-BJP members submitted a privilege motion against the chief minister for allegedly misleading the Vidhan Sabha, asserting that conflicting statements were being made on the sensitive issue of the sacrilege to "derail" investigation.

The SAD-BJP legislature party led by SAD legislative party leader Parminder Singh Dhindsa submitted the privilege motion to assembly Speaker Rana K P Singh at his chamber and requested that it be accepted. They said the chief minister had contradicted his own statement of July 31, 2019 in which he had called for reinvestigation of sacrilege cases by the CBI.

They said earlier on November 6, 2015, Amarinder Singh had stated that the cases of sacrilege incidents be probed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court. PTI CHS VSD RAX

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