| Pepper guns, BOSE goof up hijack proceedings in LA | | | Bashir Assad
Jammu, Mar 11: The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly today witnessed uproarious scenes soon after the house met here with opposition PDP demanding ban on use of pepper guns on protesters in Kashmir, while BJP and NPP protested what they alleged as callous attitude of BOSE authorities that threatened the future of candidates.
As soon as the house met here today, PDP legislators demanded a statement from the government on use of peppers against protesters in Kashmir in the aftermath of parliament attack convict, Afzal Guru hanging on February 9 in Tihar jail followed by killing of a youth allegedly by Army in Baramullah. Peerzada Mansur Hussain of PDP was first to raise the issue. He was supported by almost all legislators of his party present in the house. The opposition MLAs disrupted the question hour for quite some time and came into the first row of the Assembly demanding immediate ban on use of peppers on the protesters. The PDP MLAs demanded a statement from the government on the issue, however, the Speaker, Mubarak Gul tried to pacify the agitating MLAs saying that the government shall be given some time to respond to the issue.
"Give them (government) some time, they will come up with a statement" Gull told agitating PDP members and requested them to go back to their seats" On this Mansur shouted back, "Sir, people are dying in Kashmir due to use of peppers by the police and security forces and this was totally inhuman, the government should immediately ban use of peppers on the protesters because it has dangerous and hazardous effects on life of the common man in Kashmir". He said the peppers which is a dangerous gas has created panic among the people as wherever it is used the entire habitation consumes this poisonous gas due to which hundreds of people have fallen seriously ill. Mansur while shouting on the treasury benches said that the government must respond to the situation immediately as this was a human issue of dangerous consequences.
It was only after the discussion on the annual budget was resumed that the Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mir Saifullah gave a statement on the floor of the house stating that the government has taken up the issue with the police authorities and they have been asked not to use any such substance which risks the life of anyone while dealing with the protesters. "The matter has been taken up with the police and they have been asked not to use any such substance which causes damage to life" Mir Saifullah said but was quick to add that Chief Minister will give a statement on the issue tomorrow when the grants for departments under him are discussed in the house.
Meanwhile, some BJP MLAs including Ashok Khajuria, Sukhnandan and Jugal Kishore accused the government of deliberately spoiling the future of the students. Sukhnandan who walked into the well of the house with some paper in his hands said that the State Board of school Education authorities shifted a particular examination over night in his constituency causing great inconvenience to the students appearing for exams at the centre. "This was a deliberate attempt to spoil the future of the students as the centre was shifted to some other place without any prior notice" cried Sukhnandan.
During all this drama MLA Poonch, Ajaz Jan, MLA Pahalgam, Rafi Ahmad Mir, NPP leader Harshdev singh, Independent MLA, Er. Rashid, PDF leader, Hakim Muhammad Yasin, CPI(M) leader, M Y Tarigami, MLA Batmaloo, Muhammad Irfan Shah and MLA Ramban, Ashoke Sharma were up in ant on the issue of poor power scenario, damaged transformers, non payment of bills to the private workshops involved in repairing damaged transformers and demanded statement from the government.
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