Rajasthan government rejects charges of lathicharge on Congress workers

JAIPUR: Rajasthan government today refuted allegations of lathicharge on protesting Youth Congress members last week even as the Opposition party members gave a miss to assembly proceedings as a mark of protest against the incident.

Rajasthan Home Minister G C Kataria told the House that on the directions of Speaker Kailash Meghwal, he reviewed the clippings from several news channels and found that the protesters had not been baton-charged.

He, however, said that police used water cannons to disperse the party workers as they attempted to 'gherao' the Assembly to protest against Centre's ordinance on Land Acquisition Act.

"Though for a fraction of half a minute, the police personnel are seen lifting their batons on the mob but avoided hitting them," he said

Kataria said 20 policewomen were injured by the protesters, HM said.

He appealed to the Speaker to again review the matter and give further instructions, if any, to resolve the deadlock.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister R S Rathore said that BJP wanted the Congress members to join the House and take part in proceedings, "but it appeared that they were sick of internal bickering".

" Ruling party has worked as per the consensus arrived at the Business Advisory Committee in which the Leader of Opposition R Dudi was present to resolve the deadlock.

As per their demand, the Home Minister reviewed all the news clippings. They are now deliberately not participating in the proceedings."

Taking a jibe at PCC President Sachin Pilot, who also suffered injuries during the alleged lathicharge, Rathore said, "Sachin should avoid making it a prestige issue."

Eight Congress MLAs were suspended from the rest of the Budget Session on March 3 for disrupting the House proceedings and not obeying the ruling of the Speaker while raising the issue (of lathicharge on Youth Congress members).

Rest of the Congress members skipped Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's budget speech on March 9, and yesterday's proceeding.

Independent MLA Hanuman Beniwal, who was supporting the Congress protest in the House, was also suspended by the Speaker Kailash Meghwal.