CHANDIGARH – The Opposition Congress staged a walkout, during the calling attention motion when it failed to get an assurance from the Chief Minister on the issue of reservation for Dalits in contractual government jobs.
The MLAs, led by Chamkaur Sahib legislator Charanjit Singh Channi, who had moved the calling attention notice on the issue of no reservation criteria being followed in the state while recruiting people in government departments on contractual basis, came in the well of the house and started raising slogans, after they failed to elicit a response from Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Though Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Caste Gulzar Singh Ranike admitted that this was not done and assured that this would now be followed, the opposition demanded an assurance from the CM. The MLAs then launched a verbal attack on the CM, saying that he would not speak on issues of Dalits. To this, Rural Development Minister Sikander Singh Maluka objected and said nobody could do for Punjab what Badal had done. This led to a heated debate between the two sides.
After raising slogans and calling the government “anti-Dalit”, the MLAs staged a walkout and protested outside the House for a while and later came back to participate in the House proceedings.
