The third day of the monsoon session of the Chhattisgarh assembly on Tuesday witnessed noisy scenes with opposition demanding suspension of all business to discuss issues of farmers, prompting Speaker Charandas Mahant to adjourn the House till Thursday.
After their demand for discussion on the issue through an adjournment motion was not heeded by the Speaker, the BJP members staged a sit-in demonstration before the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the assembly premises.
The ruckus started when during the zero hour, BJP members Shivratan Sharma and Narayan Chandel raised the issue of farm loans waiver, drought-like situation in the state, and frequent power cuts and sought discussions on the problems through an adjournment motion.
JCC (J) MLA from Marwahi Ajit Jogi chipping in said farmers were facing crises while former chief minister Raman Singh said the discussion on the subject was needed as only 65% loan was waived off, the farmers were denied fresh loans and the lack of monsoon causing further woe to the farmers.
BJP member Ajay Chandrakar said even the Rain God was angry and added that a “conspiracy” was on to procure seeds from outside the state.
BSP MLA Keshav Chandra also wanted a discussion on the issue.
Another JCC (J) member Dharamjeet Singh said state farmers would be in real trouble if shortage of rains, lack of seed, fertilizers and power continued for a month.
Parliamentary affairs minister Ravindra Choubey said the issues the Opposition wanted to discuss were pertaining to different departments. On this, Leader of the Opposition Dharmalal Kaushik said all these issues were related to farmers and hence discussion could be held by integrating them. BJP member Brijmohan Agrawal said the monsoon session was for farmers.
After the adjournment motion was turned down, the opposition members and treasury benches started exchanging verbal duals leading to adjournment of the House for 10 minutes.
The BJP members then gathered in front of the Mahatma Gandhi’s statue to register their protest.
As soon as the House reassembled, several opposition members trooped to the well raising slogans against the government. For their act, as per the rule of the assembly, 17 members who had rushed to the well automatically got suspended for the day’s proceedings. But the Speaker withdrew their suspension.
At that time agriculture minister Ravindra Choubey was replying to a call attention motion moved by Congress member Arun Vora, who raised the issue of substandard seed and fertilizer being provided to the farmers.
As the din continued, Speaker then adjourned the House till Thursday.