Gujarat Congress MLAs booked for rioting, damaging public property

Taking a tough stand against Congress MLAs involved in vandalising property on the Gujarat Assembly premises, Speaker Ganpat Vasava on Friday ordered his staff to lodge a complaint against them and passed a ruling in the House to collect damages from them.

Based on his orders, chief Sergeant of the Assembly L N Jethva lodged an FIR against Congress MLAs at Sector-7 police station here. In his complaint, Jethva alleged that out of the 42 Congress MLAs suspended for two days by the Speaker on Thursday for indiscipline, around 19 MLAs were allegedly actively involved in man-handling sergeants and damaging property inside the House as well as near the cabins of Speaker and Deputy Speaker after being evicted.

As per his complaint, MLAs have allegedly damaged various property, including door partitions and window panes, worth Rs 90,000. The FIR against them has been lodged under IPC sections of 142 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 332 (causing hurt to public servant and 186 (obstructing public servant).

During the Assembly session on Friday, state parliamentary affairs minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja once again raised the issue of damages to public property by Congress MLAs and requested Vasava to give a tough ruling against them.

In his ruling, Vasava said that he outrightly condemns yesterday's behaviour of Congress MLAs. Putting the onus back on Congress MLAs, Vasava stated that if they have not wasted time by asking unnecessary questions prior to the discussions on budget allocations on Home Department, they would have got more time for discussion.

"Apart from avoidable questions, their own MLAs raised two Point of Orders ahead of discussions, which consumed more time. Otherwise, they knew that how much time alloted for discussions. Now, I pronounce that these MLAs will have to pay towards the damages to the public property," said Vasava.

On the other side, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Shankersinh Vaghela, in a press conference today, alleged that Congress became a victim of 'dirty politics' of BJP and deputy speaker Atmaram Parmar, who chaired the session on Thursday.

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