By IANS
Jammu : Independent legislator Shoaib Lone Monday named on the floor of the state legislative assembly an alleged corrupt minister in the Congress-led coalition Jammu and Kashmir government.
During the post-lunch proceedings of the house, Lone in the presence of all members got up and gave the information in writing to Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. However, the name was not made public, and the mystery continues as it was not known whose name he has divulged.
Lone, the Independent legislator from Kashmir’s Sangrama constituency supporting the Congress, had in the legislative assembly Friday alleged that he had to pay a bribe of Rs.40,000 to the minister to get his work done.
Azad and Deputy Chief Minister Muzzaffar Hussain Baig later held brief discussion and then called Lone for the further details, according to sources.
The government will take immediate action and dismiss the corrupt minister if the charges were found to be true, Baig told reporters earlier outside the assembly complex.
This is for the first time in the legislative history of Kashmir when a member has accused a minister of taking a bribe from him.
The house witnessed commotion earlier in the morning with opposition members demanding that the minister be identified and action taken against him.
Members of the National Conference, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Jammu State Morcha created uproar in the house over Lone’s allegations.
Lone, in his Friday statement, had also alleged that there was a “political conspiracy” behind the murder of his father Ghulam Nabi Lone, who was education minister during the regime of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He asked for a CBI enquiry into the murder, a demand supported by the opposition members.
Baig assured the house that the government was willing to order a CBI probe into Lone’s assassination.
His colleague and Agriculture Minister Abdul Aziz Zargar said the debate should end now as “we are for the CBI probe” into the murder.
The senior Lone was assassinated in his official residence in Tulsi Bagh in Srinagar Oct 18, 2005.
An inquiry was conducted by the then divisional commissioner Kashmir, B.B. Vyas, who in his report pointed out that there was a “security lapse” when militants barged into the minister’s residence and shot him dead.