■ Staff ReporterRAIPUR, Mar 1

CHHATTISGARH PradeshCongress Committee PresidentBhupesh Baghel raised the ques-tion involving a Breach ofPrivilege against WRD SecretaryGanesh Shankar Mishra as soonas the House met for the question hour on Wednesday.

Demanding action against the IAS officer, the Congressmembers created a pandemoni-um in the House and even stageda walk out.

Congress Legislative PartyLeader T S Singhdeo said if theTreasury bench want that Houseshould function smoothly, a pos-itive initiative should come fromthem. Speaker GaurishankarAgrawal said he has received thePrivilege Motion Notice and willact upon it as per norms. Onbehalf of the state governmentRevenue Minister Prem PrakashPandey while agreeing that theincident was unfortunate said thestate government is committedtowards protecting the rights anddignity of Legislators. Since theincident had taken place in theAssembly Annex, it is in thepurview of Speaker to take nec-essary action. He said whateveraction the Speaker deems fit hemay rule, the state governmentwill bring into compliance thesame. However, these assertionsdidn’t satisfy the Congress andthey staged a walk out.

As soon as the House resumedon Wednesday, raising the ques-tion involving a Breach of

Privilege against WRD SecretaryGanesh Shankar Mishra, CPCCPresident Bhupesh Baghel said“how can we work if a memberof executive tries to bully us, whatis the use of question hour whenwe are stopped from raising anyissue”. This was followed by pan-demonium in the House withCongress Legislators shoutingslogans demanding actionagainst the said IAS officer.

Speaker Gaurishankar Agrawalsaid he has received the privilegemotion notice and will takeappropriate action and request-ed smooth functioning ofQuestion Hour.

However, unrelenting theCongress Legislators shouted atthe state government accusingthat the state government hasgiven complete relaxation to exec-utive to function at their will andthere is no control of the gov-ernment over them. All the exec-utives have the protection of gov-ernment, how can we work.

Parliamentary Affairs MinisterAjay Chandrakar objecting to thehullabaloo questioned the oppo-sition under what rule they aretaking up this issue duringQuestion Hour. This led to letloose pandemonium with

Congress asking how they canwork under such tense situation.

Speaker again said the matteris under his consideration and hewill dispose the same after seek-ing reply from the official in ques-tion. Congress Legislative PartyLeader T S Singhdeo said whethertheir agitation is obstructingquestion hour or not is not a ques-tion. He said the question is howthey will work under such con-dition when public representa-tives are being threatened andsuch behavior is unwarranted.The CLP Leader angrily retortedif the Treasury benches wantsmooth functioning of House, apositive response should comefrom them. He said “we’ll notwork with such people, till the offi-cial is suspended.”

CPCC President BhupeshBaghel said the incident tookplace yesterday but till date noapology has been rendered.

Revenue Minister Pandey inter-rupted and stated that whateveraction the Speaker recommendsthe state government will initi-ate. Speaker GaurishankarAgrawal then ruled that he willcall an explanation from the offi-cial concerned and on the basisof his written reply, further action

will be taken. Unhappy with theruling Congress Legislators stagewalk out. It is worth mentioninghere that in full public view, CPCCPresident Bhupesh Baghel andWRD Secretary Ganesh ShankarMishra had indulged in a spatover issuing NoC for mining inthe catchment area of PindraonReservoir on Tuesday at theChhattisgarh Assembly lobby.

The issue took a hype when the WRD Secretary objected to the remarks made by CPCCPresident against him, when bothof them came face to face in theAssembly annex.

The Oldest and Largest Circulated English Daily of Central IndiaRaipur ■ Thursday, March 2, 2017 ■ Vol XVII No 331

Printed & Published by Rajendra Purohit, Printed at The Hitavada Press, Avanti Vihar, Telibandha, Raipur-492006 and Published From Avanti Vihar, Telibandha, Raipur-492006, Editor: Vijay Phanshikar, Resident Editor: E.V. Murli, E-mail:hitavadaraipur@gmail.com, Ph: 0771-4233999, 4233977, 4233988 (Fax) : 0771-4233966. R.N.I. Regd. No. MP ENG/2000/1776

Cong stages walkout demandingaction against IAS officer

BhupeshBaghel

T S Singhdeo

GaurishankarAgrawal

Prem PrakashPandey

Home Minister refutes Oppn charges of minor tribal boy killed by forces■ Staff ReporterRAIPUR, Mar 1

REFUTING the Oppositioncharges, Home MinisterRamsewak Paikra in his writtenreply in the House stated that aftergetting a tip-off, a joint team ofdistrict force and CRPF hadlaunched a search operationtowards Gongla-Metapal villagesunder Gangaloor police stationlimits at around 4 am onDecember 16, 2016. While secu-rity forces were in the forests ofMetapal, Maoists started firing onthem following which securitypersonnel retaliated. After policefiring started, Naxals escaped intoforests. During searching, body ofan unidentified Naxal along witha 12 bore gun, was recovered fromthe spot, he added.

Paikra said the deceased waslater identified as Somaru Pottam,a native of Patelpara in Metapal.It was incorrect to state that hisage was 12 years, the he said.

The Minister replied accordingto his ration card, the deceasedage was 16 years in 2013 and nowafter four years, he would haveturned 20.

A Magisterial enquiry wasordered by Bijapur Collector intothe alleged killing of a minor deaf-n-dumb tribal boy in a stagedencounter in Bijapur district.

Alleging the encounter as fake,the deceased’s father KummaPotam and mother Jamli Potamhad filed a petition in ChhattisgarhHigh Court. The High Court onDecember 23, 2016 ordered to

conduct re-postmortem of thedeceased after exhuming thebody. The postmortem report wassubmitted in the High Court onDecember 27, the Minister added.

The Opposition Congress onWednesday staged Walkout fromthe House over the issue. They alsodemanded compensation for thefamily of the deceased.

Moving a Call Attention Motion,Congress Legislators MohanMarkam, Deepak Baij andSantram Netam said, onDecember 16, 2016, SomaruPotam, a 12-year-old, a speech andhearing impaired boy, was shotdead by security forces in themorning. After pumping threebullets into him, security forcesdressed the body in Naxal uniformto brand him as a Maoist, Markamalleged.

He further added that the fatherof deceased, Kumma Potam hadalleged that Somaru and his threefriends Bheema, Kaaru and Sunil,had gone to field on the midnightof December 15-16. On their wayback home in the morning, he wastrying to collect red ant nest froma tree when a joint team of secu-rity forces reached there, he said.On spotting security personnel,his three friends fled from thespot but the victim could not.Subsequently, after tying him toa tree, security forces shot himdead. When some women gath-ered in the locality shouted afterthe incident, security forcesimmediately stripped thedeceased’s clothes and dressedhim in Naxal uniform, he alleged.

Centre gives Rs 1,050 cr todevelop sewagetreatment forGanga cleansingNEW DELHI, Mar 1 (PTI)

THE Central Government hasawarded contracts worth Rs 1,050crore to develop sewage treat-ment infrastructure in Patna tocurb the contamination of theGanga river stretch.

The Government will set uptwo sewage treatments plants(STPs), renovate an already exist-ing plant, construct pumping sta-tions and develop a 407 km-longunderground sewage networkunder the project.

The contracts for building anSTP with 60 million litres per day(MLD) capacity and laying of 227km underground sewage networkin the city’s Saidpur Zone have been awarded to twofirms UEM India Pvt Ltd and JyotiBuild Tech Pvt Ltd at a cost of Rs600 crore.

Three other firms--Larsen andTurbo Ltd, Voltas Ltd and GAAGermany JV--have been award-ed separate projects in Beur Zone.

These firms will build one STPof 23 MLD capacity, renovate anexisting 20 MLD plant and devel-op new 180 km-long under-ground sewage network in thezone. The firms will also install main pumping stationsof 83 MLD and 50 MLD capacityin Saidpur and Beur Zonesrespectively.

The contracts also include thecost of operation and mainte-nance of STPs and sewage networks for a period of10 years.