The Bihar meeting plunged into turmoil on Saturday when the opposition sought to lift the problem of alleged involvement of Revenue and Land Reforms Minister, Ram Surat Rai in illicit liquor commerce, forcing adjournment of the House round midday until lunch.
No prior to the proceedings started at 11 am, chief of the opposition Tejashwi Yadav rose from his seat and urged the Chair that an adjournment movement over Rai’s alleged involvement within the enterprise of liquor on this dry state be taken up for dialogue.
Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha disapproved of the identical, saying he has obtained the discover however the movement shall be thought-about solely at “an appropriate time”. He dominated that the Question Hour ought to proceed.
A miffed Tejashwi Yadav signaled to the MLAs of his occasion and allies Congress and the Left that it was time to depart the House and so they staged a walkout at the same time as Health Minister, Mangal Pandey started studying out the reply to a brief discover query by a RJD legislator. By midday, when the Zero Hour started, the opposition legislators have been again within the House.
The Speaker rejected the adjournment movement moved by RJD MLA Rekha Devi. She was, nevertheless, allowed to learn out the movement after Yadav rose and made a request to the impact. The RJD inheritor obvious, thereafter, added that he had some “evidence” in opposition to Rai which he wished to position beforethe House. Rai has been within the eye of a storm over a four-month-old case. Numerous liquor cartons was seized from a faculty constructing in Muzaffarpur district in November final 12 months, a fortnight earlier than the BJP chief gained the Aurai seat and landed a cabinet berth. The faculty is called after Rai’s deceased father Arjun Rai.
Yadav has been alleging that he suspected the Minister’s involvement in unlawful liquor commerce, stating that he was named within the faculty’s paperwork as its founder. Moreover, considered one of his brothers, the supervisor of the college, has been named as an accused within the FIR.
The Minister has countered opposition cost saying his brother was “one of 13 people named in the FIR, the remaining being associated with the RJD”, whereas insisting that complicity of these named as an accused was nonetheless below investigation. Training his weapons at Rai, Yadav, in the course of the meeting session, additionally made a point out of the minister’s deceased father.
A powerful exception was taken to this by Deputy Chief Minister Tarkishore Prasad. The opposition legislators then trooped into the effectively and raised antigovernmental slogans, inflicting the Speaker to adjourn the proceedings round 12.15 pm. Thereafter, they spent a while outdoors, squatting in entrance of the Speaker’s chamber.
Later, Yadav led a march in direction of Raj Bhavan, barely a kilometer away, saying he would apprise Governor Phagu Chauhan of the makes an attempt to “muzzle the voice of the opposition”.
Earlier, Yadav had held a press convention at his residence the place he displayed photos of the inauguration of the college through which Rai may very well be seen. “How can the Minister wash his hands off a matter that involves a property and an institution wherein he is so deeply involved,” Yadav requested, reiterating the demand that he be sacked by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.