Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislator representing Tral Assembly segment was rushed to the Government Medical College hospital from the floor of the State Assembly after he was injured in the ruckus on Tuesday.
For more than one hour it was ‘free for all’ and the House had to be adjourned thrice as legislators belonging to the PDP, Panthers Party and the BJP were in no mood to spare the Treasury Benches go “scot free” without giving them the justification why constituencies represented by the Opposition legislators were discriminated while setting up new administrative units across the State at the end of the marathon exercise.
In the absence of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the PDP legislators converted the reporting table of the Assembly Secretariat staff into a temporary ‘battle field’. The agitated members, at least 11 of them, stood tall on the reporting table, shouted slogans, looking into the Speaker’s eye, paying little heed to the repeated directions to climb down. The legislators, some of them wearing Kashmiri overcoat (pheran) also attempted to uproot mikes and turned legislator tables upside down as members of the watch and ward staff struggled hard to contain their anger.
Interestingly, as PDP hijakced the proceedings of the Question Hour and cast a shadow on the discussion on Governors address legislators from the BJP and Panthers Party also joined the PDP and raised the demand on behalf of areas left in their constituencies as well. Independent members Hakeem Yasin and Engineer Rashid also protested alleged discrimination against their areas by the Omar Abdullah Government.
Some legislators manhandled watch and ward staff when they were trying to prevent them from climbing the reporting table. The legislators holding placards shouted slogans against the Government to stop discrimination with remote areas. They also demanded an assurance from to include the leftover pockets from far-flung areas in the new list.The Opposition members were also supported by the Deputy Speaker Sartaj Madni as he was seen standing with a placard alongside PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti.
Commenting on the chaos, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wrote on his Twitter account, “Seems they (Opposition) really are totally shaken up by our decision to create so many new administrative units which has been well received.” “Want to see shameful behaviour of elected representatives – check out the Opposition in the J&K Assembly standing on tables,” he said.
Agitated PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti retorted in equal measure claiming, “People are protesting, legislators are bleeding and Omar Abdullah prefers tweeting.” “We will not allow the House to run unless and until our demands of inclusion of our areas in the list of the new administrative units are not met by the Government,” PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti told reporters outside the State Assembly.
“Instead of coming to the House, he prefers to tweet. He has said PDP MlAs should feel sorry. Sorry for whatIJ He (Omar) should feel (sorry) as there was a suspicious murder of Haji Yousaf (NC worker) at his residence and JKCA scam involving Farooq Abdullah,” she said.
Mehbooba Mufti said, “They are behaving like animals with our honourable MlA. He did not carry a gun or sharp weapon but was only agitating for inclusion of his area ignored by the Government in list of new administrative units. It is condemnable.” The PDP leader said there is no fixed criteria for grant of these units and demanded that the Government should mention certain rules in this connection.
“They ignored the Gania committee report…Did not discuss it in the House. And now, if they gave over 600 instead of over 222 areas, what is the problem to include some more areas and put an end to protests in the areasIJ” she said.
BJP MlA Jugal Kishore said, “Jammu has been ignored in grant of new administrative units. Jandrah, which is in Naibat for past over 30 years, has not been made a tehsil. It is the biggest discrimination. House will run only after the ignored areas are included in the list.” Harsh Dev Singh of JKNPP alleged that the NC-Congress coalition Government had ignored areas of other party MlAs and “distributed these units among themselves”.
Defending the administrative units set up by the NC-led Government, Minister for Planning and senior NC leader Ajay Sadhotra said, “PDP is frustrated over the historic decision of Omar Abdullah. No area has been discriminated against.”