BHOPAL : The opposition Congress strongly objected to the Vidhan Sabha not paying tributes to the farmers who have committed suicide or died of heart attack in the state after the ruining of their Soyabean crop. The Speaker turned down the demand of the treasury benches to include the farmers in the obituary references.
The proceedings of the day-long special session began with obituary references on Thursday morning. Ex-President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Azad, former PCC chief Prasaram Bharadwaj, music director Ravindra Jain and those who were killed in the train accident in Harda in August and the blast at Petlawad in September, besides eight other former members of the House, were in the list of obituary references.
Congress’ Ramniwas Rawat asked that when tributes were being paid to the victims of accidents, why farmers were being left out. Leader of Opposition Satyadev Katare wanted to know whether the Petlawad deceased have been included because of the upcoming bye-polls in Ratlam Lok Sabha constituency. The opposition members demanded that the farmers who had committed suicide should be added to the list of obituary references. However, the Speaker Sitasharan Sharma firmly rejected the demand. “You cannot dictate me”, he said. He also charged the opposition members with transgressing the norms of decency by creating disorder during obituary references.
The Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan said the Congress was doing politics over farmers. “I condemn this attitude of the opposition”, he said.
Ultimately, while the CM and leader of the BSP contingent limited themselves to paying tributes to those figuring in the agenda, Rawat paid tributes to the farmers as well.
Jitu Patwari drives to Assembly in tractor
Congress MLAs led by Jitu Patwari protested against Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s ‘apathy’ towards farmers by driving to the Assembly on a tractor to attend the special one-day session on Thursday. Several Congress workers reached the assembly on board tractor driven by Rau MLA Jitu Patwari.He also had an argument with the police which objected to his choice of vehicle for reaching the assembly. Talking to media persons, Patwari made it clear that he wanted to highlight farmers’ plight and register protest over state government inaction on agri crisis so he chose the tractor.
