The main Opposition in the State Assembly, Congress, on Monday lost the opportunity to raise the issue of multi-layered professional examination board (PEB) scam.
The way the Congress members and the leader of the Opposition Satyadev Katare acted in the Assembly, it was evident that the Congress completely failed in raising the issue in the House. Demanding a CBI probe in the scam, the Congress members had been raising the issue since long and they had failed in raising the issue in the last Assembly Session as well.
The Congress members walked up to the Assembly with black aprons that had message - "Announce CBI probe in the MPPEB scam". However, the members after getting their photos clicked outside the House, did not react inside.
Only Sunderlal Tiwari of the Congress strongly raised the issue for few minutes, but he was pacified by his leader Satyadev Katare, who told the House that there was a question- number 13, that would come in the Question House and Congress members can discuss the issue during the Question Hour and asked Tiwari to allow the Question Hour to proceed. However, to the surprise of the Congress members, the Question Hour concluded only with 12 questions. The question in this regard was submitted by local Congress legislator Arif Aqueel.
Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Monday lost valuable time as the Congress member raised the issue of multi-layered professional examination board (PEB) scam in the Question Hour and sought a discussion over it, thereby resulting in the questions related to the scam not being taken up. Soon after the House re-assembled for Question Hour after brief adjournment, Congress member Sunderlal Tiwari raised the issue of the PEB scam and demanded a discussion over it.
Political observers feel that accepting the ruling of the Speaker that Question Hour should be allowed, was not justified. If Congress members really wanted to raise the issue, they should have halted the House anyhow.
Earlier, Speaker Sitasharan Sharma had explained the member that the Question Hour should be allowed to run smoothly first. However, the member continued to raise his demand and also exchanged some remarks with the treasury bench.
The continuous pestering by the member compelled Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra to comment that the Opposition did not itself want the matter to be discussed as a question in this regard was in the list of questions to be taken up today.
later, when the Question Hour ended, Katare sought the Speaker time for discussion over the PEB scam. However, Sharma directed the leader of the Opposition to meet him in the chamber to discuss the matter.