The first day of the monsoon session of Chhattisgarh Assembly witnessed some stormy scenes on Tuesday with the Opposition Congress members demanding an immediate debate on suicides committed by farmers in the State.
During the question hour, Speaker Gaurishankar Agrawal had to adjourn the House for 10 minutes after the Opposition members remained adamant on having a debate on the issue.
Earlier, when the House sat for business, the members made obituary references to the departed leaders including Union Minister late Anil Madhav Dave besides former member of Madhya Pradesh legislative Assembly Jitendra Vijay Bahadur Singh.
The House also paid tributes to Amarnath pilgrims killed in terrorist attack in Kashmir and the jawans who were martyred at the Burkapal Naxal attack in Sukma district in the month of April this year.
When the House resumed business after paying obituary references, the Opposition members demanded immediate debate on the issue of suicides by farmers on which Revenue Minister Prem Prakash Pandey raised objection while saying that the issue of death of farmers must not be politicized.
The Opposition members stated that there cannot be a bigger issue to discuss right away than suicides of farmers and a debate should happen immediately in the House. The Opposition members raised slogans and remained adamant on having a debate on the issue.
leader of Opposition T S Singhdeo said that this is not the first time that such a debate had been demanded by stopping question hour proceedings.After the pandemonium in the House, the Speaker adjourned the House proceedings for 10 minutes.
When the House resumed, the Opposition members once again demanded a debate on the issue.The Speaker later allowed a debate in the House on the issue.
Congress member Bhupesh Baghel said that farmers had been committing suicides due to demonetization effect in the State.
When the State witnessed drought situation in 2015-16, the Government got crop insurance done for 12.73 lakh farmers and distributed Rs 774 crore as insurance, Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Ajay Chandrakar said.
He said that the Government procured 69.29 lakh metric tonnes of paddy from farmers last year.
Independent member Dr Vimal Chopra said that neither BJP nor the Congress party are talking about farmer suicides and are putting the blame on each other.
He said that farmers are not getting seeds and fertilizers.