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Punjab Cong MLAs stage walk out twice after Khaira denied opportunity to speak in Assembly
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....unjab Cong MLAs stage walk out twice after Khaira denied opportunity to speak in Assembly<BR>PTI News<BR>Dated:- 24-3-2025<BR>PTI<BR>Chandigarh, Mar 24 (PTI) Noisy scenes were witnessed in the Punjab Assembly on Monday with the Congress MLAs staging a walk out of the House twice after party MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira was allegedly denied an opportunity to speak in the House. Speaker Kultar Singh S....
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....andhwan and Khaira sparred after the latter was not given an opportunity to raise his issues while the former asserted that it was the discretion of the chair whom to be allowed to speak. During the Zero Hour of the budget session, Bholath MLA Khaira sought Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan's attention to allow him to raise issues in the House. Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa also stood up....
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.... in support of Khaira, urging the Speaker to allow him to speak. "I urge you. He (Khaira) has been waiting to raise some important issues. Kindly allow him to speak," Bajwa asked the Speaker. After Khaira kept demanding the Speaker to allow him to speak, Sandhwan told the MLA that it was his prerogative who is to be given an opportunity to speak in the House. "Nobody can force the chair. It ....
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....is the chair to see who is to speak," Sandhwan told Khaira and asked MLA Rana Inderpartap Singh to speak. Thereafter, Khaira sat down. A few minutes later, he again rose from his seat and demanded from the Speaker to allow him to raise farmer related issues. The Speaker, however, allowed MLA Sandeep Jakhar to raise his issues. When Khaira expressed his displeasure over not being allowed to s....
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....peak, Sandhwan told him, "You are preventing an honourable member from putting forth issues of the people of Punjab." "Is it only you (Khaira) who can raise issues of Punjab. Please sit down. Can you intimidate the chair," he asked Khaira. Later, the Congress MLAs went to the well of the House before staging a walk out. However, Congress MLAs Rana Gurjeet Singh and Hardev Singh Laadi kept si....
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....tting for some time but later walked out. Later in the day, during the discussion on the Governor's address, Bajwa again requested the Speaker to allow Khaira to take part in the debate after Congress MLA Pargat Singh shared his views. The Speaker told Bajwa that he had already given more than the allotted time to the Congress MLAs. "This is the discretion of the chair. I try to be as fair a....
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....s possible. I gave you more than the allotted time," said Sandhwan and took MLA Rana Inderpartap's name for taking part in the debate. After being denied the opportunity to speak for the third time, Khaira got agitated and went to the well of the House. The other Congress MLAs also joined him. As he was expressing his displeasure to the Speaker in the well of the House, Congress MLA Avtar Henr....
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....y took him to come out of the House as other party legislators were staging the walk out. The treasury benches strongly opposed the conduct of Khaira in the House. Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema asked the Congress MLAs to come back. "Have some shame. You used unparliamentary language here. Speaker saab take action," Cheema urged the Speaker. Later in a statement, Khaira accused Sandhwa....
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....n of "harboring a personal grudge" against him, alleging that the Speaker has "systematically banned him from participating in legislative proceedings for over a year". Khaira alleged that the Speaker's "partisan and dictatorial conduct has rendered the Vidhan Sabha'?a critical democratic platform'?defunct and farcical". "For the past year, I have been prevented from raising pressing issues co....
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....ncerning my constituents and the people of Punjab," Khaira claimed. He said he was denied the opportunity to speak during Zero Hour despite persistently raising his hand ten times. PTI CHS NB NB<BR> News - Press release - PIB ....