The Gujarat speaker had denied a two-hour discussion on the
liquor tragedy.
The Congress and NCP members in the state assembly staged protestations before speaker Ashok Bhatt's office in the House, before submitting a notice demanding his removal, over the ongoing hooch tragedy of Ahmedabad.
The two parties had been demanding for a two-hour discussion in the House over the hooch tragedy which has claimed more than 125 lives in the city in the last 10 days. But, Bhatt did not allow the discussion to take place. Leader of opposition (LoP) in the assembly, Shaktisinh Gohil, MLA Arjun Modhwadia and Siddharth Patel besides NCP MLA Jayant Patel sent a joint notice to the assembly secretary demanding removal of Bhatt from his post as the speaker.
The secretary will now have to put the proposal before the House for discussion in the next 14 days. If the House passes the proposal, Bhatt will be removed from his post. However, chances of Bhatt's removal are slim as the majority party MLAs will vote against the proposal.
Gohil alleged that Bhatt may have been doing so in trying to save the government from criticism; therefore "we have decided to issue a removal notice against him". Stating that the opposition members have lost confidence in him completely, Gohil said that they have also sent the same notice and letter to him informing him why they had to take this step.
"We told him that we just want only those steps which he had then sought as an MLA from the then speaker and chief minister during the 1989 tragedy. He had used abusive language for the chief minister at that time while we have not said anything like now. But, he had still suspended many of our members and is not even allowing us a discussion, which is our constitutional right," Gohil said.
On the other hand, Bhatt held Congress responsible for the Friday's clash between Congress MLAs and BJP workers. In his statement in the House Bhatt stated he checked the TV news clippings and also got reports of the DSP which too said that the clash was initiated by the Congress MLAs. Moreover he also said that he cannot intervene in the matter as the clash had taken place outside the assembly complex and in the secretariat.
Bhatt criticised the Congress's protest on Friday by wearing black clothes in the House and said that the party has violated assembly rules and model code of conduct. He also demanded an apology from the opposition members. Making a jibe at the Congress protest in which members broke a photo frame of Palitana Jain Temple's entry gate, Bhatt said that Congress should apologise for the act, "but if they are not (sorry) for this, then I should say sorry as it has happened in my area of responsibility".
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