By IANS
Jammu : Jammu and Kashmir’s legislative assembly was adjourned sine die Wednesday, abruptly cutting short by 10 days its budget session, amid noisy scenes by the opposition members against “widespread corruption” in the coalition government.
In less than half an hour after the house met for its second sitting of the day, the grants of more than a dozen ministries were passed with voice vote amid noisy protests from the opposition National Conference (NC) members. They asked for resignations of two ministers, who it alleged were involved in irregularities in the forest department’s transactions.
The National Conference since Jan 23 has been agitating and demanding the sacking of Forest Minister Qazi Mohaammad Afzal and his predecessor Tariq Hameed Karra. An official inquiry has exposed the malfunctioning of the forest department, when Karra and Qazi Afzal held forest portfolio.
Though the probe report did not name the ministers, the opposition alleged that they were “involved” and rejected any offer of debate unless the two ministers stepped down.
Media reports here Wednesday alleged that there were more corrupt ministers, including Health Minister Mangat Ram Sharma and Roads and Buildings Minister Jugal Kishore Sharma. That gave more ammunition to the opposition to target the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led state ministry government.
“This government is full of corrupt people. It must go,” said Leader of Opposition and senior National Conference leader Abdur Raheem Rather, as he led the noisy protests in the house.
After the grants were passed with voice, Speaker Tara Chand declared the house adjourned sine die, though its budget session was scheduled to continue till Feb 9.
Earlier, the chairman of the legislative council or the upper house suspended two National Conference members – Devinder Singh Rana and Mohammad Rashid Qureshi – for the rest of the session. The two were protesting against what they called “corruption in the government”.