Audio clip, Manesar land issues rock Haryana Assembly; 14 INLD MLAs suspended

CHANDIGARH: For the second day today, the Haryana Assembly witnessed ruckus as the opposition INLD disrupted proceedings over allegations of bribes being paid for the post of a municipal committee chairman while the ruling side raised the Manesar land issue.

The House also saw 14 INLD members being suspended for the remaining duration of the current budget session over the disruptions.

The Assembly was also rocked by the Manesar land issue, which was raked up by the ruling BJP in the wake of yesterday's Supreme Court judgment restoring acquisition of 688 acres of land in Gurgaon during the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress regime.

As the INLD members led by Leader of Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala remained adamant on their demand for a CBI probe into the bribe allegations which came to the fore in purported taped conversations and disrupted proceedings, Speaker Kanwar Pal adjourned the House for 30 minutes.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that Director General, Vigilance Bureau will investigate the matter within one month and strict action would be taken against those found guilty.

However, as the INLD members repeatedly disrupted proocedings, the House passed a resolution suspending 14 of the INLD members out of 17 who were present.

Later, INLD members M L Singla, Hari Chand Middha and Parminder Dhull staged a walkout.

Shiromani Akali Dal's lone legislator Balkaur Singh walked out with them.

As soon as the Quesiton Hour was over, many legislators of the ruling BJP were seen flashing newspapers and reading out the Supreme Court judgment in the Manesar case.

Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu, who flashed xerox copies of newspaper cuttings, trained guns at former CM Hooda, alleging farmers were looted during his regime.

The BJP legislators urged the Speaker to allot time for a discussion on the Manesar land issue.

In the meantime, Abhay Chautala stood up and demanded probe in the audio tape issue.

"An attempt has been made to give clean chit to person at whom fingers are being pointed," Chautala said demanding a senior functionary's removal.

This angered the ruling BJP benches, with Capt Abhimanyu telling the INLD legislators that they were not serious on a discussion on the Manesar land issue.

The Speaker told the members both sides, "if all of you speak like this, then nothing can be heard".

Khattar assured the House that whosoever is found guilty in the bribe charge case raised by INLD members will not be spared, but only once investigations are held.

Highlighting several cases from the past, Khattar said no previous government including the ones which were led by INLD or Congress, had taken action first and investigated the matter later.

As bedlam prevailed and INLD members were being led out of the Assembly by the Marshals, BJP legislators Seema Trikha and Kamal Gupta raised "Bharat Mata ki Jai" slogans and said the opposition members were wasting precious time of the House.

"This august House should not become a place for political fights," Capt Abhimanyu said.

Some BJP MLAs while referring to Manesar land case, raised slogans in the House, saying "Hooda ko giraftaar karo (arrest Hooda)".

Congress's Karan Singh Dalal said Hooda's name had not been mentioned anywhere in the Apex Court's judgment.

Khattar then read out extracts from the Apex Court judgment in the Manesar issue, saying how farmers had been cheated while builders and middle men benefitted.

Khattar also referred to the report of Justice S N Dhingra commission that had probed controversial land deals in Gurgaon, saying once the court's bar on making it public goes, many things will come out of the closet.

Chautala sought to know the fate of 400-page 'charge sheet' which his party had given to the government over three years back pertaining to alleged acts of ommission and commission during the previous Congress government.

Abhimanyu wondered why INLD legislators were not willing to have discussion on the Manesar land issue, while charging them with being hand-in-glove with the Congress on this.

When Chautala again asked if government will get their chargesheet investigated by the CBI, Khattar replied, "it is a 290-page document given to us and not 400. We have said this earlier as well that all irregularities will and are being probed, but we will not act against anyone out of vendetta. Things will proceed as per investigations".