The question hour of last day of monsoon session of Jharkhand Assembly was washed out due to uproar created by Opposition parties demanding a discussion on alleged bribery charge made by a Tata Projects official against Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL) MD, Rahul Purwar.
As the question hour started, Marxist Co-ordination Committee (MCC) leader and Nirsa MLA, Arup Chatterjee moved for calling attention motion demanding a discussion on the issue.
The MLA, with reference of a newspaper articles claimed that Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL) MD, Rahul Purwar is allegedly involved in bribery charge from Tata Projects. Chatterjee demanded the State Government to come clean on an email purportedly sent by Tata Projects officer to expose Jharkhand’s ‘commission culture’.
He said, “In the email it has been mentioned that JBVNL MD, Purwar for clearing the payment of Rs 42 crore of JBVNL has demanded a commission of 2.5 per cent from Tata Projects. The officer has stated that in the commission of 2.5 per cent, cut money is to be made to Chief Minister, Chief Secretary (CS), and other officials too.” Though the Speaker rejected Chatterjee’s demand for call attention motion, the ruling party legislators lost their cool after the Nirsa lawmaker dragged the name of Chief Minister in commission money.
State Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Neelkanth Singh Munda said, “The MLA cannot drag the name of Chief Minister who is also Leader of House without any evidence. The House cannot take cognizance just on media reports.”
The BJP MLAs started shouting slogans against the Chatterjee and JMM MLAs who too had come up in support of MLA. Revenue and Land reforms Minister, Amar Kumar Bauri said, “The allegations made by the MLA are untrue and baseless.”
However, the JMM legislators kept on demanding a discussion on the issue.
Later Speaker Dinesh Oraon adjourned the house.
When the house resumed for zero hour, MLAs raised the issue pertaining to public interest. BJP MLA from Hatia, Navin Jaiswal raised the issue of increasing the honorarium of teachers working at affiliated colleges. Jaiswal said, “The teachers get Rs 600 per class and in a month they hardly gets four to five class. With such less payment the teachers are finding hard to meet their daily needs.”
At the Zero hour, BJP MLA from Garhwa, Satyendra Nath Tiwari raised the issue of Gopinath Singh Inter College. The MLA claimed that the college administration by furnishing wrong documents has received financial aid from both Jharkhand Academic Council and State Government, but when the issue came to light the State Government stopped the aid which has resulted to nonpayment of salaries to teachers for past two years. MLA said, “Due to financial irregularities committed by college administration the students are teachers are suffering.”
The MLA demanded action from State Education minister in this connection. Minister Neera Yadav replying on the issue assured the MLA that action will be taken as per laws; however, the MLA was not ready to accept minister’s assurance. Later, the Speaker announced an Assembly committee to look into the affairs of college.