Chandigarh: Haryana assembly today adopted a
motion of breach of privilege against the Leader of Opposition
Om Parkash Chautala for allegedly misleading the House about
imposition of VAT on salt even as INLD and SAD members staged a walkout to protest the move.
The Privilege Motion was moved by ruling Congress member
Kuldeep Sharma who alleged that Chautala had "willfully,
deliberately and knowingly" misled the House by making a
false statement on imposition of VAT on salt while speaking on
the budget yesterday.
The motion was adopted by the House by voice vote amidst
opposition from members of the Indian National Lok DAL (INLD)
and its ally SAD's lone MLA Charanjit Singh.
Members of the two parties also staged a brief protest
walkout when Speaker H S Chatha granted leave to Sharma to
move the motion.
The members of the two parties returned after the
assembly had adopted the motion.
The House referred the issue to the Privileges Committee
for examination and submission of its report at the first
sitting of the next session.
However, as the discussion on the budget was resumed
acrimonious scenes were witnessed in the House following
heated exchanges between the ruling Congress and the
opposition INLD, BJP and SAD members.
Chatha expunged most of the exchanges between the two
sides and repeatedly appealed to them to calm down and remain
in their seats.
BJP member Anil Vij said that the surcharge on VAT
proposed by Finance Minister Ajay Yadav would result in
increase in prices of all the commodities.
-PTI
First Published: Friday, March 12, 2010, 22:00