Gandhinagar: Gujarat assembly on Friday witnessed
high drama after ruling BJP proposed breach of privilege
motion against Congress leader Arjun Modhvadia following his
allegations of corruption in a land deal for a hotel project
in Surat.
Modhvadia had yesterday alleged that the Modi government
allotted 65,000 square metre land at a throwaway price, which
resulted into huge loss to government exchequer.
However, following the debate in Assembly it was decided
not to introduce the motion after the ruling party said that
Leader of Opposition has apologised on behalf of Modhvadia.
Government spokesperson Jaynarayan Vyas, earlier, proposed
the breach of privilege motion against Modhvadia for his
allegations against the government.
Leader of Opposition, Shaktisinh Gohil, opposed the motion
on the grounds that there was no provision in the rules to
bring breach of privilege motion against member for the
reasons cited by Vyas.
The Speaker had to intervene number of times to control
the members of both the parties on the matter.
Modhvadia challenged the government and said that he would
resign from his post and retire from public life if his
allegation was proved false.
"I have given documentary evidence in the house stating
that it was under the pressure from the Chief Minister's
office that the Surat district authorities sold the land at
throw away prices," Modhvadia said, adding even district
officials had not agreed to the land rates decided by the
government.
Responding to this, Vyas said that the rates was decided
by the Supreme Court.
He claimed that the Congress leader had tried to mislead
the House by making false allegation without verifying facts.
However, Leader of the Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil said
that Modhvadia was right in bringing the matter before the
House.
Gohil, however, expressed apologies on behalf of his
party colleague if any derogatory remarks were made in the
assembly yesterday.
Following this, Vyas withdrew the proposal to introduce
breach of privilege motion against the Congress leader in the
assembly.
PTI
First Published: Friday, March 05, 2010, 18:14