Amidst main Opposition Congress' walking out, the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday passed the Madhya Pradesh Value Added Tax (VAT) Amendment Bill along with two other amendment Bills by voice vote.

After the passage of VAT (Amendment) Bill, a clause of the Bill was passed and Dr Govind Singh and Ramniwas (both Cong) raised objection saying that the clause of the Bill should have been passed earlier.

They said it was against the rules of the Assembly, besides, they claimed that no prior information was provided to the Opposition about the passage of the said clause.

Other Congress members also protested and finally, the Congress members staged a walkout, led by the Deputy leader of the Opposition, staged a walkout. However, amidst Congress walkout, Deputy Speaker Rajendra Kumar Singh took up the items on the agenda and the Bill was passed by voice vote.

Replying to discussion, Finance Minister Jayant Malaiya said that the amendment bills were brought for implementation of the announcements regarding the taxation which were made during the presentation of the Budget for the 2016-17.

The House also passed Indian Stamp (Madhya Pradesh Amendment) Bill and Madhya Pradesh Professional Tax (Amendment) Bill after discussion by voice vote.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Public Health and Family Welfare Minister Narottam Mishra on Wednesday announced in the House that the timings for conducting post-mortem in district hospitals would be increased to 12 hours in a day within a year.

“Necessary arrangements such as lighting and adequate medical staff would be made in this regard within a year. Thereafter, timing for autopsy would be changed to 0800 hrs to 2000 hrs in a day,” said Mishra while replying to a discussion on a calling attention notice by Yashpal Singh Sisodiya of the BJP.

Sisodiya pointed out that the bodies of victims arrive late for post-mortem on many occasions. Post-mortem is not performed after 1800 hrs. Family members are forced to wait for post-mortem till around 1000 hrs next morning. This leads to a situation of argument and ruckus several times.

Earlier, the Minister mentioned that autopsy is not performed after 5 pm in view of recommendations of the medico-legal committee and the Bureau of Police Research and Development due to various reasons. However, the member pointed out that recommendations pertained to an era when adequate electricity was not available and the situation has changed now when hospitals possess facilities for conducting operations round the clock.