By IANS,
Shimla : Pandemonium prevailed in the Himachal Pradesh assembly on the first day of the budget session as the opposition BJP members protested the speaker’s delaying a decision on their two adjournment motions.
As the house assembled in the morning, BJP members Ravinder Ravi, Rajeev Bindal and Suresh Bhardwaj inquired about the fate of their notices on adjournment motions.
Speaker B.B. Butail said the notices given by them were under consideration.
This agitated the opposition members and they started raising slogans against the government.
In its two motions, the BJP sought discussion on the phone tapping controversy and the government’s decision to change the names of schemes named after former prime Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s name.
The question hour and house proceedings, however, continued in the midst of the ruckus.
The budget session of the state assembly began here Tuesday.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh read a suo-motu statement in the house. Quoting provisions under the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885, he said the information regarding phone tapping can’t be disclosed.
Official sources said the computers in the CID and vigilance bureau offices were seized on the night of Dec 24-25 last year, hours before Virbhadra Singh assumed charge as chief minister.
The chief minister last week said 1,371 phones of politicians and bureaucrats were tapped during the previous BJP tenure. Out of these, the home department gave permission to tap only 170 phones.
Director General of Police I.D. Bhandari, who was heading the CID when the illegal phone tapping took place, was removed last month.