Ranchi, March 03: Five opposition MLAs were on Thursday suspended for the remaining period of the ongoing Budget session after they disrupted the Jharkhand Assembly proceedings for an hour during which they held mock-sessions in the well of the House.
The suspended legislators are Pradip Yadav (Jharkhand Vikas Morcha – Prajatantric), KN Tripathi, Chandrasekhar Dubey, Sawana Lakra and Yogendra Sao (all Congress).
Land and Revenue Minister, Mathura Prasad Mahto moved a motion for their suspension which was passed by voice vote. The five MLAs will remain suspended till the end of the current Budget session, which ends on March 25.
The suspension triggered protests from the opposition bench with the Leader of Opposition, RP Singh of Congress challenging the Speaker to suspend all the opposition members.
‘Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch’ MLA Bandhu Tirkey pointed out that suspension was against the convention of the state Assembly which had never witnessed such action.
The Speaker sought to know from Tirkey whether pulling a chair in the well for mock proceedings was not against the convention.
Trouble began when Congress MLA Chandrasekhar Dubey demanded a statement from the Chief Minister, Arjun Munda on a file relating to corruption charges against a senior bureaucrat.
The opposition MLAs trouped into the well and raised anti-corruption slogans against the government and later held mock proceedings which HRD Minister, Baijnath Ram termed as “murder of democracy”.
Dubey had also raised the issue on Tuesday and the Speaker had then said, “Unless charges are proved, no one is held guilty. Therefore, no one should engage in character assassination of any person in the House.”
—-PTI—