Demand to telecast Punjab Assembly sessions after MLAs play it rough in the House
CHANDIGARH: A day after the lawmaker of AAP from Bholath constituency Sukhpal Khaira who was suspended by Punjab assembly speaker Rana KP Singh for the rest of the Budget session for uploading a video of the unruly scenes on his Facebook account, today an advocate famous for filling Public Interest Litigations (PILs) has written to Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh asking that assembly proceedings be shown live on television, like Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha proceedings are shown.
The demand comes amid controversy over what actually transpired on the floor of the Punjab Assembly in the past two days.
Pitching for the live broadcast of House proceedings, lawyer HC Arora asked Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brahm Mohindra to request the Punjab Assembly Speaker to make arrangements in this regard. The electorate has the right to know what is being done by their representatives in the Punjab assembly, he said.
Stating that the Right to Information Act had brought transparency in administration, Arora pointed out that the Punjab Vidhan Sabha was in dire need of it, as proceedings have been marred by controversies in the past too, like in the last session.
Filthy abuses were hurled by certain Members of the House against their colleagues, but due to lack of transparency in proceedings of the House, the people of Punjab were kept guessing as to who created the ugly scenes in the House, he said.
“It is thus, high time that State Government request the Speaker of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha to make arrangements for live telecast of proceedings of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, in the interest of democracy,” the letter said.
Yesterday, Khaira recorded the heated exchanges between Akali and Congress MLAs, following which Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brahm Mohindra moved a motion and Khaira was suspended for the session. He then refused to hand over his mobile arguing that other legislators were also carrying phones, and that Assembly proceedings were not in progress when he had shot the video.
Earlier too, during the tenure of SAD-BJP government, the demand to broadcast live coverage of the state Assembly session had been raised, but it fell on deaf ears.