The Gujarat Assembly was adjourned for one hour after Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani was prevented from speaking on the death of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vankar. Vankar had set himself ablaze outside the Patan collector's office while protesting against the delay in allotting land to a Dalit family. He died of burn injuries on February 16. Speaker Rajendra Trivedi adjourned the House for an hour when Congress MLAs started shouting slogans against the BJP government after Mevani was prevented from speaking on the issue by Trivedi. Congress MLA from Patan, Kirit Patel, along with senior party MLA Shailesh Parmar and Mevani, today sought the state government's response on Vankar's death under Rule 116 of the Assembly, which deals with 'matter of urgent public importance'. In his opening remark, Kirit Patel asked the government to explain the reasons behind a non-functional fire tender deployed outside the Patan Collector's office, which according to Patel, led to the death of Vankar. In his reply, Minister of State for Home, Pradeepsinh Jadeja, put the onus on the opposition party, as he claimed that the fire tender belonged to Patan municipality, which is ruled by the Congress. "Since Patan municipality is under the Congress rule, only they can tell us why it failed to work" said Jadeja. Hitting back, Parmar said the fire tender belonged to the BJP-ruled Mehsana municipality. Jadeja responded by stating that adequate police personnel as well as fire extinguishers and an ambulance had been deployed outside the Patan collector's office to prevent any incident. "On duty policemen doused the flames in just 41 seconds. Even two of the policemen received injuries while trying to save Vankar. We have not only registered an FIR as demanded by Dalit activists, we have also suspended two police constables" Jadeja said. Speaking on the issue, Mevani slammed Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's government, following which, the Speaker ordered that Mevani's mike be turned off. "We need to go deeper into the issue, as to what forced Vankar to take such an extreme step.
After this incident, 50 lakh Dalits in the state have lost faith in the Rupani government" said Mevani. Before he could make any further comments, the Speaker interrupted Mevani and asked him to stop. When Mevani continued speaking, Trivedi orderd that the mike be turned off. This led to sloganeering from Congress members and the Speaker adjourned the House for one hour. When the House met after recess, Mevani raised the issue of compensation to Vankar's family, claiming that no compensation had been given so far. Responding to Mevani, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel informed the House that a cheque of Rs 4.12 lakh had been handed over to Vankar's wife on February 19. He alleged that Mevani was trying to project himself as a Dalit leader by using this issue.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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