Dissatisfied over the reply of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on the deteriorating law and order situation in Himachal Pradesh, the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party again staged a noisy walkout on Tuesday. The Chief Minister criticised the move of opposition and said, they can just raise the issue and do not have the courage to listen to my reply. They are unnecessarily trying to drag my name into the controversy of harassing and victimising a State cadre police official working in the Enforcement Directorate, he added.
Opposition members Ravinder Ravi and Virendra Kanwar had earlier raised the issue of corruption and law and order under the Vidhan Sabha rule 130 and had also demanded the reconsideration of their request of an adjournment motion under the rule 67.
The Opposition was demanding a discussion under rule 67 on the repatriation of a State cadre police officer who was in the Enforcement Directorate and investigating a case registered on FEMA violations against the principal private secretary of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. The Speaker, who did not allow the discussion under the adjournment motion (rule 67), said the members can discuss the same matter under the rule 130.
The Chief Minister in his reply said the concerned police officer is blowing up things out of proportion and the matter has nothing to do with the law and order situation in the State. He said this police officer had himself come to his office while making a courtesy call and he was never pressurised to do anything out of context. There is no truth in his allegations which are now raised by the Opposition, he said.
“The matter of my private secretary being involved in foreign exchange violations is an old one and when his children were studying abroad,” he added. The police official is misguiding the media and opposition and the matter is already shifted to Chandigarh and has been fixed for hearing on August 26, 2015, said the Chief Minister while urging the Opposition to not to disrupt the House proceedings.
