The Congress members stalled the proceedings of the UP assembly demanding the release of party MlA Ajay Rai leading to adjournment of the house. As many as 30 annual budgetary grants were passed by the assembly amidst the din without debate.
Five-six Congress members rushed to the well of the house during the zero hour and demanded that the party MlA be released, under detention for the last nearly six months under NSA. Congress member Anugurah Narain Singh said that even after assurance by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, the member was yet to be released and the case of NSA had not been withdrawn.
The members squatted in the well of the house and raised anti government slogans. The assembly Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey tried to pacify the Congress members saying that the house had debated on the issue once, hence they cannot raise the matter again. The congress however refused to budge the speaker first adjourned the house for 20 minutes and then passed the budgetary grants of 30 departments amid noisy scenes.
The parliamentary affairs minister Azam Khan said the government is willing to consider the release of the Congress MlA. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has met the family members of the MlA and has also given an assurance in the house to consider the matter. The minister however said the Congress will have to disassociate itself in the matter in Varanasi. The Congress MlA was detained under NSA in October last year following the incidents of arson and violence in Varanasi while the procession for the immersion of Ganesha idols was being taken out in city.
later the house was adjourned for the day and now it will sit on March 8 to pass the appropriation bills and the budget, which will be the last day of the budget session. The state assembly created a sort of record by sitting on Sunday to pass the departmental budget and to take up other agenda including tabling of four bills and laying of the probe reports of Muzaffarnagar riots and police firing on farmers at Tappal in Aligarh.