Fewer questions and more controversies mark Gujarat Assembly

The state assembly on Friday morning was filled with surprises, as only five questions could be discussed in the question hour, which was the minimum since the beginning of the 10th session of the present assembly. Further, the ruling party brought in the proposal for suspending leader of the Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil. With the passage of the proposal by majority voting, Gohil was suspended for the rest of the session or till he would apologise in the assembly.

In between Congress MLA Ashwin Kotwal tabled the urgent notice of public interest under the rule 116 of Gujarat Assembly Rules about a man killed by leopard in Vijaynagar forests in Sabarkantha. Kotwal inquired about the state government’s actions to ease fear of leopard amongst the people living in the area. Mangubhai Patel, minister of forest and environment presented the statement in the house about the steps taken by the government to capture leopard and details of compensation given to the family of the deceased.

Soon after that the minister of state for parliamentary affairs Pradipsinh Jadeja tabled the proposal in the house to suspend Gohil. It was passed by majority voting. Congress MLAs then started shouting slogans and prepared to stage a walk-out with Gohil, but he restricted the MLAs from doing so.

As Gohil went out of the house, annual reports of 8 boards and corporations were tabled by the ministers. Soon afterwards, discussions on supplementary demands in the budget started for next two days.