The first day of winter session of Chhattisgarh Assembly witnessed an uproar today as the opposition Congress demanded discussion on demonetisation through an adjournment motion notice, saying the Centre's decision had caused immense trouble to the poor.
The house was adjourned five times.
However, after day-long noisy scenes, Congress agreed to a discussion on a proposal tabled by the BJP government in the state welcoming the Centre's decision to withdraw the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
As soon as the House assembled in the morning, state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel alleged that Ravi Pradhan, a farmer from Maharajpur in Raigarh district, committed suicide as he could not get his high-denomination notes exchanged due to the heavy rush and mismanagement at local bank.
Pradhan visited the bank for three days in a row but had to return empty-handed each time and his two sons were stranded in Tamil Nadu without cash, Baghel alleged.
Every section of society, be it labourers, farmers, housewives or retailers, was bearing the brunt of this decision, Congress MLAs alleged, seeking discussion on the issue through the adjournment motion.
Speaker Gaurishankar Agrawal urged them to allow smooth conduct of Question Hour, saying the issue can be discussed afterwards.
Revenue Minister Premprakash Pandey defended the demonetisation, saying the Prime Minister had taken a brave decision to unearth the black money and check terror activities.
Congress MLAs shouted anti-government slogans, leading to counter-slogans by BJP legislators.
Speaker Agrawal said as per the daily business sheet, a proposal will be tabled by Chief Minister Raman Singh welcoming the decision ofdemonetisation, and the opposition can raise its issues during the debate on it.
But Congress rejected the suggestion, forcing the Speaker
to adjourn the House for ten minutes.
When the House resumed, Congress MLAs again started slogan shouting which led to adjournment for the second time.
Subsequently, when the house again reassembled the Speaker said he had received adjournment motion notice from Congress on demonetisation. It had no direct connection with the state government, but as the state government was tabling a proposal on demonetisation (welcoming it), the opposition can present their points during the discussion on it.
Hence adjournment motion was being rejected, he said.
This led to another round of ruckus and Agrawal adjourned the house for the third time.
The house adjourned for two more times on the same issue as Congress members kept shouting slogans.
In the meanwhile, Chief Minister Raman Singh tabled the motion welcoming the Centre's decision.
Amid the ruckus, the CM said the House welcomed the Union Government's decision of demonetisation and expressed its commitment to encourage institutional mechanism for smooth monetary transactions.
In the evening, the leader of opposition TS Singhdeo said there were lot of discrepancies in the implementation of the demonetisation leading to a public outcry.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ajay Chandrakar said the Chief Minister had tabled the proposal and the opposition can raise its points during the discussion on it.
Congress finally agreed to discussion on the proposal which was postponed to the next working day of the House.
