Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 16: The issue of maintaining quorum in the Legislative Assembly today echoed in the House with Deputy Speaker Sartaj Madni calling upon chief whips of all parties to make their members serious to devote time to the House as many times he had to stop members from going out to maintain the quorum, necessary for running the House proceedings.
Presence of at least 23 members (one-fourth of total strength of 89) is required in the Assembly to run the House.
Mr Madni, who was presiding over the House during debate on the grants of Higher Education Ministry in the Assembly, stopped Minister of State for Health (Independent charge) Shabir Khan from going out of the House as it would have resulted into lack of quorum leading to adjournment of the House. Mr Khan followed the Chair direction and returned.
This prompted Mr Madni to issue a direction to chief whips of all political parties in the House to make their members serious in the House so that they attend it without being compelled to do so.
“I have to compel the members. I have been stopping many members from going out of the House”, he said.
Former Speaker and Higher Education Minister Mohammad Akbar Lone, whose grants were being debated in the House, endorsed the view point of the Deputy Speaker and said it was job of the treasury benches to maintain quorum in the House.
“The chief whips had to ensure that the MLAs of their parties sit in the House and maintain quorum”, Mr Lone said.
Mr Madni observed: “this is not good for the members. They sit in lobby of the Assembly but not in the House. Some of them speak in the House and then immediately leave. This is not my job as a Presiding Officer to maintain the quorum but it was the job of all parties-the treasury benches and others. They have to do it. Had the Chief Minister been in the House, I would have asked him also (to advise the members to maintain quorum)”.
Responding, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saifullah Mir admitted that some members speak and then just leave the House. “I have to go out many a times and bring the members to the House to maintain quorum”, he said.
The Deputy Speaker said the House members should understand that there was a difference between a man on street and here. “Should I have to lock the House”? he asked.
CPM MLA MY Tarigami, without mentioning the boycott of the PDP, said the House should have been locked three days back.
It may be mentioned here that main opposition party, the PDP with 21 MLAs has been boycotting the budget session in the Assembly since Wednesday in protest against the statement of Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde refusing to return the body of Mohammad Afzal Guru to his family.
When Mr Madni stopped Minister for Health, Shabir Khan from moving out of the House, there were only 25 members present in the Assembly i.e. just two more than the quorum.
However, after the Deputy Speaker’s directive to chief whips of the parties, the number of MLAs in the Assembly immediately swelled to 33.
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