Himachal Budget session starts on stormy note; BJP stages walkout

Shimla: Attacking the Congress government for blocking the disbursement of MLAs Local Area Development funds—the last instalment payable before the closure of the financial year, the opposition staged a walk-out from the state assembly on the opening day of the budget session.

The House witnessed complete pandemonium due to sloganeering and heated exchanges.

The BJP had moved an adjournment motion in the House asking for a discussion under rule Rule-67 which was opposed by Chief Minister Sukhwinder Sukhu, who accused the BJP of diverting the attention of the people from real public cause to get headlines in the newspapers.

Dissatisfied with the Chief Minister’s reply, the opposition staged a walkout after a long uproar.

Earlier, the opposition alleged that all the development in the state had been stopped and even the budgeted grants were not being released by the government.

“The House should suspend the day’s business to discuss why the money of MLA’s constituency development fund has been stopped,” former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur asked.

The opposition and ruling benches exchanged heated arguments on the justification of the adjournment motion as Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri took a strong objection to the attitude of the opposition BJP which had lost power only a few months back.