Jaipur, Feb 20 (IANS) Opposition Congress lawmakers stalled the proceedings of the Rajasthan assembly for the third day Wednesday over the number of ministers in the cabinet exceeding the constitutional limit.
The Congress legislators caused an uproar in the assembly and demanded dismissal of parliamentary secretaries holding ministerial ranks as, they argued, the cabinet exceeded the constitutional limit.
The opposition party said the Bharatiya Janata Party government has more number of ministers than the stipulated number of 30, as per the constitution.
The house was adjourned thrice and after that the deputy speaker adjourned it till Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Leader of Opposition Hema Ram Choudhary and other Congress members asked the deputy speaker to sack the five extra ministers after Congress legislator Sanyam Lodha at the beginning of the question hour raised the issue of excess ministers.
With Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje recently inducting six parliamentary secretaries, the total number of her cabinet members has gone to 35, and thus the BJP government “has flouted the limit of 15 percent ministers,” Lodha said.
Rajasthan has a 200-member assembly.
The Leader of the Opposition, while speaking in the assembly, said the deadlock on the issue of parliamentary secretaries should be resolved.
He said the opposition was keen that the deadlock was resolved, but the ruling party was not allowing this to happen.
Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said the advocate general’s report on the controversy over the appointment of the parliamentary secretaries was placed on the table of the house and the opposition members could read it.
As the Congress legislators moved to the well of the assembly, raising slogans, Deputy Speaker R.N. Vishnoi adjourned the house.