Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was today adjourned amid pandemonium as MLAs cutting across party lines staged a walkout and boycotted the House to protest against the alleged insult of a legislator by a senior bureaucrat.
Drawing attention of the Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone in Legislative Assembly, BJP member Lal Chand of Bani Assembly constituency raised the issue saying he was insulted by senior bureaucrat R K Jerath during a meeting here.
“I was insulted and humiliated by Commissioner/Secretary of Health Department R K Jerath when I sought a meeting with him to sort out an issue of his constituency,” Mr. Chand said, adding, “He (Jerath) told me to get out and come later.”
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Drawing attention of the Chair, he demanded action against the officer.
As soon as he finished, MLA Ashok Khajuria of BJP, G M Saroori of Congress and A G Veeri of PDP also backed Mr. Chand and demanded action against the officer in order to restore image of the MLA and stop recurrence of such incidents in future.
Most of the legislators from opposition and treasury benches including PDP, BJP, Congress, NC, JKNPP, JSM, PDF also shouted slogans demanding justice for the MLA.
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The protests continued for over 15-20 minutes as all members of the House, except ministers, were on their feet blaming bureaucrats for undermining the respectability of the legislators and often ignoring them.
Amid uproar and noisy scenes, the Assembly plunged into pandemonium and later all MLAs of the House staged a walkout to boycott the House.
Later speaking to the reporters outside the Assembly, JKNPP member Harshdev Singh said members have decided to boycott the proceedings of the House unless action is taken against the official.
However, the ministers who were sitting in the House alone for over 10-15 minutes also chose to leave forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House for the day.