Three ministers fail to answer, say sorry

MUMBAI: The Democratic Front (DF) faced major embarrassment in the legislative assembly on Thursday when three senior ministers had to apologise, all in a span of three hours, for disregarding legislative norms and parliamentary practices. The irony was that even the minister for parliamentary affairs, Harshavardhan Patil, had to tender an apology for not following parliamentary practices and rules.

The other two ministers who said sorry to the House were energy minister Dilip Valse-Patil and health minister Vimal Mundhada. The ministerial goof-ups forced the presiding officer, Pramod Shende, to pull up the government and ask ministers to come prepared to the House with answers to listed questions submitted by the members well in advance.

“This is not done. Three ministers have had to apologise for not being prepared to give reply. This must not be repeated and ministers must respect parliamentary traditions and norms,” presiding officer Pramod Shende told the government.

It all started with a calling attention notice moved by the opposition on the energy crisis. Dilip Valse Patil’s first response was that he had received a copy of the notice only a couple of days back and hence the notice be put on hold.

This claim was contested by an angry opposition, and BJP legislative party leader Eknath Khadse pointed out that the ministers concerned are informed about the calling attention notices at least 7 days in advance. The opposition’s demand for an apology from Mr Patil was conceded by the minister only after the House was adjourned for a short period.

After this, health minister Vimal Mundhada and her deputy minister Ranjeet Kamble started walking out of the House even after a calling attention notice on snake-bite incidences in the state was taken up. Ms Mundhada told Speaker Babasaheb Kupekar that she had sent a letter to the chair requesting that the notice be deferred. The opposition objected following which the minister apologised.

Minister for marketing and parliamentary affairs Harshavardhan Patil had to apologise after a bill pertaining to the marketing department was taken on agenda, but both the minister and his deputy were absent at the time. Mr Patil explained that he was in the legislative council to answer questions on his department, but the opposition countered this saying that the minister should have asked a senior cabinet colleague to move the bill in the assembly in his absence.