In a piquant instance of a Congress MlA embarrassing her own party, MlA Amrita Rawat asked several questions from education and water resource minister Mantri Prasad Naithani on Thursday, questions that left the unprepared minister red-faced. Chief Minister Harish Rawat had to intervene thrice. Ridiculing the treasury bench, the Opposition sarcastically said there was no need for the ministers to be present when CM was answering all the queries on their behalf.
Amrita Rawat further tore into the government, saying that there was mismatch between the assurances and the reality on the ground. “This being the last session of the present House, the minister has been giving assurances of installing hand pumps in Ramnagar, my constituency. In all, 133 hand pumps have been assured to be installed. However, the figure on the ground is a paltry 28. Technical reason was cited for it. It is said that the remaining 104 hand pumps will be installed after the department receives the requisite funds,” she said in her star question. “The minister replied that they had received requests of hand pumps for 113 places in Ramnagar,” she said, asking the minister to clarify which one of the figures was right. CM intervened at this juncture and tried his best to humour the aggressive MlA into silence.
When the Opposition raised the chief secretary’s letter the parliamentary affairs minister Indira Hridayesh asked opposition to read the complete letter.