The Question Hour was derailed in the UP Assembly for the second day today amid strident criticism by the opposition Samajwadi Party on the issue of power hike.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath slammed the opposition for the ruckus, saying it was an attack on the interest of 350 members of the House.
Power Minister Shrikant Sharma hit back at the opposition, describing the Congress and SP as a "poisonous cocktail and against development".
As soon as the House met this morning, Leader of the Opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary raised the issue and wanted an immediate roll back, saying the hike had burdened every section of society.
Chaudhary was soon supported by other opposition members leading to a din in the House.
Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit urged the agitated members to allow him to take up the day's listed business first and raise their issues during Zero Hour.
They, however, did not relent and started raising slogans and soon trooped into the well of the House.
The Speaker urged them to take their seats, but his request went unheeded.
Chaudhary wanted the Chair to take up the matter first as the decision had hit the common people badly.
Dixit then adjourned the House for 15 minutes, but it was extended by another 15 minutes and then till Zero Hour.
The situation was no different when the House reassembled, and amid fresh uproar, the Chair adjourned the proceedings for the day.
In the din, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna was heard taunting the opposition SP, saying the UP electorate had rejected them in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, 2017 Assembly elections and now in the civic body polls.
"They have nothing constructive to do but to raise non- issues in the House," he said, provoking SP benches.
Sharma justified the hike and dubbed the SP members as "anti-development, anti-people".
"During the SP regime, there used to be no electricity supply," he charged.
With the Opposition unrelenting, Adityanath, who was present during the uproar, said permission cannot be given to them to hold the entire House to ransom.
"We want the Vidhan Sabha to function smoothly and for a longer period but the behaviour of Samajwadi Party members prove that they do not want it and that their reality over the issue (of power) has come before the people," he said.
A visibly perturbed chief minister said, "Permission should not be given so that 47 members hold the entire House to ransom...this is an attack on the interest of 350 members of the House," the chief minister remarked.
"It would have been better had they debated and presented their logic...but it seems they want to run away from it so that their misdeeds do not come before the people," he said.
Stressing that the power tariff hike has been negligible over which the Opposition was raising a hue and cry, he said the government was ready for debate and respond to all their queries.
Maintaining hat the government wanted the House to function in a democratic manner, the chief minister said the Chair can think over and decide what steps needed to be taken.
Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit regretted that it was for the first time that Opposition has tried to disrupt the House when the Leader of the House was speaking.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna said that it was never the case when his party (BJP) was in Opposition.
"We had seen over a dozen chief ministers but what SP did today was never seen earlier," Khanna said.
Even as SP members raised slogans "bijli ka daam wapas lo", "kisan virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi", Khanna said the government was ready to reply on all the points and alleged that the SP members wanted to encroach upon the rights of other members by creating ruckus.
"People have rejected them and they only want to be in media glare for which they are creating this scene," he said.
Power Minister Sharma also charged the Leader of the Opposition with provoking SP members and said the protest was aimed at attracting media attention after being routed in successive elections.
"The hike is minor while the supply hours have been increased...they, however, like darkness...they have fleeced the state for 15 years...Congress and Samajwadi Party is like a poisonous cocktail which does not want development...their 'dadagiri' (bullying) will not be allowed. We know how to answer them back in their language...they gave power to only four districts (during the SP government)," Sharma remarked.
While the BSP members staged a walkout during the melee, the Congress members remained on their feet all through.
Interestingly, even after the Speaker adjourned the House for the day, Samajwadi Party members including senior MLA Azam Khan and Congress were seen squatting in the Well.
The Winter session of the UP Legislature got off to a stormy start yesterday with the opposition disrupting proceedings on power tariff and law and order issues, leading to adjournment of both the Assembly and the Council for the day.
The UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) recently hiked power tariff.
While the average hike for domestic consumers is 12 per cent, for urban domestic electricity consumers it has been raised by 9 per cent. For metered rural domestic consumers, the tariff has been hiked to Rs 3 per unit for first 100 units and Rs 4.50 per unit beyond that.
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