Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 22: The issue of quorum again came to haunt the Legislative Assembly today as Speaker Mubarak Gul had to stop proceedings of the House for about a minute citing “technical problem’’ during debate on the grants of Industries and Commerce Ministry.
Hardly three minutes had passed when debate on the grants started that number of MLAs in the House was reduced to 22—one less than the quorum. NC MLA Nasir Aslam Wani was speaking on the grants.
The Speaker didn’t say that there was no quorum in the House but cited “technical problem’’ to stop proceedings asking Mr Wani to take his seat.
Within a minute, Housing Minister Raman Bhalla and NC MLA Rashpal Singh entered the Assembly taking number of members in the House to 24 leading to resumption of proceedings.
At 11.11 am when Opposition members of NPP, BJP breakaway group and JSM staged a walk-out in the House over disarming of cops, there was no Opposition left in the Assembly. The PDP and the BJP had been boycotting proceedings of rest of the budget session.
CPM MLA MY Tarigami and PDF MLA Hakim Mohammad Yasin were also not present.
Most of the time during grants of the Industries and Commerce Ministry, the number of MLAs in the House remained below 30.
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