Gandhinagar: The opposition Congress on Friday
staged a walkout in the Gujarat Assembly after a BJP MLA was
not allowed to raise the issue of farmers agitating against
upcoming Nirma cement plant in Bhavnagar district.
The Congress members staged the walkout after the
Speaker denied permission to Mahuva BJP MLA Kanu Kalsaria, who
is towing anti-party line on the issue of Nirma plant, to
raise the issue of agitating farmers on floor of the House.
The Speaker suspended Kalsaria for a day after he
trooped into Well after denied permission to raise the issue.
He was then escorted out of the house by marshals which led to
protests by the Congress members who raised anti-government
slogans from their benches and later walked out of the house.
"After a 15-day march from Mahuva to Gandhingar, I was
hoping to raise the issue of agitating farmers in the
assembly, but I was not allowed to do so," Kalsaria later told
reporters.
Our women agitators had also taken out a march today but
were not allowed to enter the assembly and treated "badly"
while being detained by the police, he said.
The state Congress president Arjun Modhvadia said that
Kalsaria should have been allowed to raise the issue of
farmers in the house.
The Leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil later told
media persons that "it is very sad that Kalsaria was not
allowed to raise his voice in support of agitating farmers in
the house. We walked out of the house in protest against this
attitude of the state government".
Farmers from as many as 12 villages in Bhavnagar
district, led by the BJP MLA Kanu Kalsaria are opposing the
upcoming cement plant in Bhavnagar district.
Nirma, which is setting up a 1.91 million tonne per
annum capacity cement plant, along with its captive power and
coke oven plant near Padhiarka village, was given 268 hectares
of land for setting up of the plant besides more than 3,000
hectare for mining lease in the surrounding areas of the
district.
The farmers had last year filed a Public Interest
Litigation (PIL) in the Gujarat High Court opposing the
project alleging that out of 268 hectares of land alloted to
the company, 222 hectares was part of a natural wetland.
The farmers had said that if allowed, the upcoming
plant would destroy their agriculture and animal husbandry,
besides causing irreparable damage to the environment.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment on March 12
ordered "permanent suspension of work" with regard to the
plant near Padhiarka village in Mahuva taluka of Bhavnagar
district.
It had also directed the company to respond as to "why
the environmental clearance accorded to the project should not
be revoked and stoppage of the work not be made permanent."
PTI
