Congress urges Governor to veto 16 bills passed by Chhattisgarh assembly

RAIPUR: Opposition Congress today requested Chhattisgarh Governor not to give assent to 16 bills passed by the state Assembly, saying that they were rushed through the house without any discussion with the opposition MLAs.

Congress also sought action from the Governor on Speaker Dharamlal Kaushik's decision to expunge parts of speeches of its legislators, which were made while paying homage to the Congress leaders killed in the Maoist ambush in Bastar in May.

A delegation of Congress MLAs, led by the Leader of Opposition Ravindra Choubey, met Governor Shekhar Dutt and handed him a memorandum.

The memorandum alleged that legislations were passed hurriedly and the monsoon session was wound up two days ahead of the schedule, on Wednesday.

"The state government has passed such important bills without holding any discussion and without taking the opposition members into confidence. It is inappropriate and unparliamentary," the memorandum quoted Choubey as saying.

Major portions of the speeches made by Congress legislators during the obituary reference to the victims of the Darbha massacre were expunged by the Speaker, thereby disallowing publication of the remarks by media, it said.

The speeches by Ajit Jogi, Mohammed Akbar and Dharamjeet Singh were unnecessarily censored, the memorandum said, alleging that this was "administrative terrorism" and violation of freedom of expression.

Further, despite admitting to security lapses before the Darbha attack, no action had been taken by the BJP government, it said.

In the three-day-long Monsoon session, opposition members did not take part in any business, protesting against the state government's failure to provide security to Congress 'Parivartan Yatra' which was ambushed by Naxals on May 25.

Opposition MLAs were suspended twice during the session when they trooped into well of the House demanding resignation of the Chief Minister Raman Singh over the issue.

The Assembly passed 16 bills, including an amendment to Chhattisgarh Food Security Act, and supplementary budget of over Rs 2,000 crore without any discussion.