The main Opposition Congress in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly was on Wednesday caught off guard when the Government agreed for a discussion on the adjournment motion brought by it over the State's Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) scam and the Speaker allowed it to be taken up immediately.
The decision to accept the motion for discussion was announced by Speaker Sitasharan Sharma after the leader of Opposition Satyadev Katare raised the issue of adjournment motion notice on the matter, soon after the House assembled for the day and took up the scheduled Question Hour. The Speaker asked Katare to wait till the Question Hour ended but he insisted that the Chair give a ruling on the matter.
However, following intervention by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Speaker admitted the motion for discussion. Chouhan said he was in favour of admitting the motion as many things were being alleged about the scam "without substance".
Congress members including Katare, Sunderlal Tiwari and Jeetu Patwari were not expecting such a decision and they raised rules and procedure to get it delayed. The ruling party members including Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra and Industries Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya then asked them to admit that they are not ready for the debate at this moment.
But Speaker then ruled that since the motion has been admitted and the treasury bench members agreed to it, it cannot be taken back and called the name of Congress member Kamleshwar Patel to initiate the debate.
Besides highlighting various alleged irregularities in the scam, Patel demanded from the government to hand over the case to CBI for an impartial probe.