PATNA: Pandemonium prevailed in the Bihar Legislative Assembly on Thursday with the CPI-ML and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators reaching the well over rampant corruption and the Tamil Nadu issue.
The BJP raised the issue of rampant corruption, saying it had made life miserable for the masses and there were glaring attempts to shield corrupt persons. This evoked immediate reaction from the treasury benches, especially from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the allies.
The CPI-ML legislators reiterated its demand for an apology from the Leader of Opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha, alleging that he tried to fan differences between two states on the basis of a fake video, and dropped into the well.
Sinha said it was strange that the treasury benches were moving into the well. “I am ready for a debate on the TN issue at any point of time. The reality is that the protest is only aimed at preventing discussion on corruption issue,” Sinha said.
On Speaker’s insistence that the legislators should calm down and allow the Question Hour to continue, things cooled down, but only for a short while. During the very first short-notice question related to land and revenue department, BJP leaders were not satisfied with the reply of minister Alok Mehta of the RJD and started protesting, saying land for government buildings was not being made available due to rampant corruption, which was causing delay.
However, the Speaker again intervened to calm down the members and continued with the day’s proceedings, which passed off smoothly thereafter.
Through call attention, Bhai Birendra of the RJD raised the issue of absorption of hundreds of teachers and employees of the colleges made constituent in the fourth phase, saying the government was denying salaries to teachers and employees despite losing the case in the Supreme Court and spending crores on filing revision petition. “This is a government of social justice. Why can’t the government accept the Apex court order and absorb the teachers, especially when the state institutions are grappling with huge vacancies in the state universities and are unable to carry out time-bound appointment process,” he asked.
The minister said that all that he had been informed by the department officials is that the review petition had been filed in the Apex court, but was not aware if it had been accepted or not.
At this, Birendra urged the Speaker to intervene and call for the file. “It clearly shows that the officials are giving misleading information. Why should the government pay crores on review petitions to deny its own employees their legitimate due? If there is a court order in favour of teachers and employees, why cannot it be implemented, instead of filing review petition,” Birendra asked, with other members also joining to support him.
The Speaker finally told the minister that in view of the sentiment of the House, he should gather all information and reply to the question in detail some other day.
The cases relates to 40 colleges of the 4th phase having a chequered history. They were made constituent in terms of the policy decision of the government and after taking over such colleges an inquiry was held for identification of the teaching and non-teaching staff working in those colleges. Thereafter, the matter reached the court, which formed panels to resolve the matter.
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