MP assembly continue to debate MPPEB scam for second day

CM Chouhan challenged the opposition Congress, saying party members did not have the courage to hear him

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today challenged the opposition Congress in state assembly saying that the party members did not have courage to hear him.

 

"During its previous regime the Congress had looted the state and it is the cowardice of Congress, since they are now getting exposed and do not have the courage to hear me," Chouhan said.

 

On second day of the adjournment motion brought by main opposition Congress, Chouhan kept on exposing names of those who have been granted government services by previous chief ministers without entering into any prescribed process.

 

"Reading out loud some of the names of those who were granted government jobs, Chouhan alleged, "Even labourers were granted appointments in government jobs like teachers." He was replying in the assembly to an adjournment motion moved by main opposition Congress yesterday over the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) scam.

 

Normally, debate on adjournment motion is required to be completed during the same day it was moved. As the state assembly assembled for the day, the Congress MLA Ramniwas Rawat rose point of order that the debate could not continue for the second day as rules does not permit it. But legislative affairs minister Narottam Mishra justified it and said the records of the House said that in earlier years the adjournment motion had been debated for even two-days.

 

Citing an example Mishra asserted, "The house had debated an adjournment motion during December 1995 when a clash among jail inmates in Shivpuri had claimed a life, the House sometimes run by traditions and not only rules." To which the speaker Sitasharan Sharma allowed Chouhan to continue his speech from yesterday.

 

When Chouhan rose to speak the Congress members started shouting slogans and tried to disrupt his speech. Wearing black aprons inscribed with slogan "Vypam Ke Khel Me Bhanja-Bhanji Jail Me" they reached the well of the House and started shouted slogans.

 

Leader of Opposition Satyadev Katare insisted that Congress would not compromise on the issue with less than a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Probe. Pandemonium reached to an unprecedented high as interventions continued from both the sides but chief minister continued his speech and urged the speaker to let him complete his speech.

 

"It is my right," Chouhan urged.

 

But Katare pointed that the Chief Minister had no right to expose those recruitments of the previous governments for whatever reasons as the debate was going only on MPPEB scam. "The speech is irrelevant and carries no fact," Katare said. To which chief minister alleged, "Congress is escaping from listening to me since I am exposing them."

 

But opposition members remained adamant and pleaded to the speaker that Chouhan should answer to only those questions, point-wise, which were raised by them and announce a CBI probe in the case. The debate will resume in afternoon session once again.

 

Earlier this month, over 100 students who allegedly cleared the Pre-Medical Test (PMT) through unfair means were arrested by the Special Task Force from different districts of Madhya Pradesh in connection with the scam.

 

The PMT was conducted by MPPEB whose top officials were already arrested by STF since the scam surfaced in 2013.