BHOPAL: The five-day Winter Session of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly was adjourned sine die on Friday amid pandemonium. Congress members protested over allocation of Rs 400 for tribal welfare in supplementary budget. As soon as Question Hour commenced, Congress MLA Omkar Singh Markam protested and said the allocation was just Rs 400 for tribals, who comprise 22 per cent of the state's population. Legislative Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra questioned why Markam did not take part in the debate when the supplementary budget was passed on Thursday.
Speaker Girish Gautam asked the Opposition members to participate in the discussion given that majority of queries in the Question Hour were raised by Congress members. Gautam asked BJP MLA Yashpal Singh Sisodia to put forth his query to start Question Hour for the day, but the Congress legislators continued to protest, with Mishra, also state jail minister, telling the Chair he was unable to answer Sisodia's question, as he was unable to hear in the din. The Speaker then adjourned the House for the entire Question Hour, and Congress MLAs trooped into the Well and shouted pro-tribal slogans when it reassembled. Amid the protest, Speaker Gautam took up the listed business.
"They raised an issue (tribal allocation) today that they should have done on Thursday during the supplementary budget. They do not have common sense that zero also figures in budget provision. This budgetary provision was Rs 400 (to the tribal department). Budget provision of zero and Re 1 is also done. This is budgetary provision after which the money is bifurcated," he Narottam Mishra. "This government is cutting down the budget of the tribal department. The budgetary allocation to the tribal department was Rs 4,144 crore in 2017-18, which nosedived to Rs 1,718 crore in 2021-22," said Congress MLA Hiralal Alawa.
