Shimla, June 26: Eighteen Oppostion MLAs in Himachal Pradesh, including 16 of BJP, were today suspended for two days for disrupting the presentation of the state budget. When the assembly convened for the budget presentation in the morning, BJP legislators demanded that their adjournment motion on police lathicharge on party workers yesterday be discussed first. Speaker Gangu Ram said he would give his ruling on the motion after the budget presentation, but the dissatisfied BJP MLAs trooped to the well of the house shouting slogans. They were joined by Mohinder Singh (him Loktantrik Morcha) and Naveen Dhiman (Independent).

The house had to be adjourned as it descended into pandemonium when ruling Congress MLAs also started shouting slogans. However, even after the house reassembled at 1130 IST, the sloganeering continued prompting parliamentary affairs minister Kaul Singh Thakur to move a motion for suspension of 18 opposition MLAs, including Singh and Dhiman.

The motion was adopted by voice vote.

Immediately after the motion was passed, the marshal requested the opposition members to clear the well of the house but they refused forcing the watch-and-ward staff to physically remove them. Later, Chief Minister V B Singh presented the budget with empty opposition benches.
Talking to reporters outside the assembly, he rejected a demand for judicial enquiry into yesterday's police action by a sitting high court judge.
Bureau Report