The three-day session of Haryana Vidhan Sabha witnessed an expected stormy beginning on Monday with the Congress party attempting to corner the ruling BJP Goverenment on the issue of Dadupur Nalvi irrigation project and vociferously demanding an adjournment motion to discuss it.
Noisy scenes were witnessed in the House as the Congress legislators rushed to the well and shouted slogans to press for their demand following which Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar ‘named’ the Congress MlAs for disrupting the House proceedings on the first day of the Assembly session.
The Speaker also ruled that the ‘named’ 16 Congress MlAs would not attend the House proceedings for today (Monday) and should leave the House.
Before the beginning of the session, the Congress legislators had made it clear that they would stall House proceedings on the issue of scrapping of Dadupur Nalvi canal project if the State Government did not debate on it on the floor of House.
After the customary obituary references on the first day of the session, Congress MlAs demanded admission of an adjournment motion to discuss the shelved Dadupur Nalvi irrigation project, which was turned down by the Speaker. Soon after, the opposition legislators were on their feet and rushed into the well, demanding that the Chair accepts the adjournment motion.
The motion was initially strongly opposed by the ruling party with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ram Bilas Sharma saying that more than 1,000 farmers has met the Chief Minister Manohar lal at his residence today to thank him for scrapping the project.
Sharma, however, added that the State Government was willing to debate the issue but the opposition should not politicise it.
In protest, the agitated Congress MlAs shouted slogans ‘Khattar-Modi, Kisan Virodhi’, ‘Kisan Virodhi Sarkar, Murdabad’, ‘Tanashahi Nahi Chalegi’.
As opposition refused to budge, the Speaker said that the adjournment motion had been admitted but the debate on the issue would take place on Tuesday. Taking strong exception to this, the Congress legislators said that this was against the rules and once the adjournment motion was admitted, it could not be postponed and debate on the issue should take place immediately.
Kanwar Pal then said that the opposition MlAs did not seem to want a discussion on the issue and only sought to disrupt the House.
With Congress MlAs standing firm on their demand and ignoring his repeated pleas to return to their seats, the Speaker ‘named’ 16 Congress legislators present in the House for their ‘unruly behaviour’ and directed to send the MlAs out of the House.
Marshals were called in to take the Congress legislators out of the House. The opposition legislators then left the House amid sloganeering against the ruling BJP. Responding to the Congress’ protest, the treasury benches raised slogan ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.
Senior Congress leader and national media in-charge of the party, Randeep Singh Surjewala, while talking to the mediapersons later said that Haryana Cabinet’s decision of shelving the Dadupur Nalvi canal project was anti-farmer, illegal and unconstitutional.
The Congress was not allowed to raise the issue in the House and the way the ruling BJP was functioning is absolutely unconstitutional, said Surjewala, who is MlA from Kaithal.
Former Speaker and Congress leader Kuldeep Sharma said that once the adjournment motion is admitted, the same cannot be postponed for another day. Rules were not followed in the House and Congress was only demanding to discuss the issue, he added.
Another Congress MlA Karan Dalal Singh alleged that this Government was anti-farmer and had taken an unconstitutional decision to scrap the three decades old irrigation project, which was mooted for the benefit of farmers of Haryana.
Notably, the Dadupur Nalvi irrigation project was initiated in year 1985 and it was approved by government for Rs 13 crores for irrigation and recharging of ground water in the Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra and Ambala districts.
Announcing to withdraw the project, the government had on September 27 claimed that it has not found the project ‘feasible’ after enhancement of the compensation to the farmers following a May 2016 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Under the project, 2246.53 acre land was to be acquired for construction of this project, out of which a total of 1019.2994 acre land was acquired but it has been denotified by the present Haryana Government.