BJP walks out over denial of amendment to Guv address

The opposition BJP today staged a walkout from the assembly after Speaker BBL Butail denied them the permission to move an amendment to Governor Acharya Devvrat's address to the House on March 1.

The BJP members demanded changes to the Governor's address soon after the Question Hour saying their proposed amendments to address has not been listed, but the Speaker ruled that he had put them before the Vidhan Sabha secretariat but they were not found appropriate for consideration and were rejected.

The BJP chief whip Suresh Bharadwaj insisted that they had given three amendments and argued that only the House can reject or accept the amendments when the Motion of Thanks is adopted by the House.
 

Speaker tried to pacify the members maintaining that he applied Rule 24 of HP Assembly before rejecting the amendments as he could turned down any amendments or motions which he did not find appropriate for fit to be allowed to be discussed in the house.

Butail also said during the discussion on the Motion in the House, BJP members could raise these issues and he would allow them to do so.

Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal argued that Vidhan Sabha Secretariat is not competent to allow or reject any amendments for discussion in state assemblies, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and if it has done, the secretariat should be asked to confirm about the procedure precedence.

Hailing the ruling of speaker Parliamentary affairs Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said during the ten year of Dhumal government amendments were never listed for discussion on the Motion of Thanks and by insisting on listing of amendments, the BJP was setting a wrong precedent.

Intervening into the issue, Dhumal blamed the Congress for not discharging its duty while in Opposition and said they never brought any amendment.

Ravinder Singh Ravi (BJP) also said that the Speaker cannot reject the amendments and should have allowed the same to be listed along with the motion.

Later the entire BJP groups staged a walkout but later returned after sometime.

Moving the motion, Jagjivan Pal (congress) hailed the achievements of the government but made a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government for creating the financial emergency by demonetisation.