10 Cong MLAs suspended from Gujarat Assembly for a day for sloganeering in House
Gandhinagar (PTI): Ten legislators from the opposition Congress were suspended from the Gujarat Assembly for a day on Tuesday following chaos and sloganeering over the issue of a "fake" government office unearthed in Chhota Udepur district last year and siphoning off funds meant for irrigation projects.
While the Congress' strength in the House is 15, five of its MLAs were absent at the time of chaos in the House.
During question hour of the ongoing budget session, Congress MLA Tushar Chaudhary sought to know what action the government had taken against those who had opened a "fake" government office in Chhota Udepur district and siphoned off government funds meant to carry out various irrigation projects in tribal areas.
In a written reply, Tribal Development Minister Kuber Dindor said no such office was found during the last one year in Chhota Udepur district and thus no question arises about action to be taken.
Enraged by the reply, Chaudhary claimed five such fake offices were found last year in the tribal-dominated Chhota Udepur district and the accused were also caught.
He was referring to the arrest of two persons in October last year for allegedly securing Rs 4.16 crore in government grants by setting up a fake office of an executive engineer for irrigation projects in Chhota Udepur district.
Later, former IAS officer BD Ninama, who took voluntary retirement in February last year, was arrested by Dahod district police for allegedly helping the other accused in carrying out the "scam" and securing government grants worth Rs 18.59 crore under the 'Tribal Area Sub Plan'.
When Congress MLA Amrutji Thakor sought to know how much funds were given to the accused, Dindor said his department had disbursed Rs 21 crore to the persons as they posed as genuine government officers.
"This scam was busted by the state government itself and then it came in the media. We took suo motu action. We have lodged FIRs against the accused and also arrested five persons so far," the minister said.
Since his oral answer was different from what was mentioned in the written reply, Congress MLAs started raising slogans against the BJP government, accusing it of concealing facts.
Hitting back, Dindor said such scams were rampant during the past Congress governments.
Taking strong exception, Chavda asked Dindor to come clean over the issue and own up the responsibility for it.
When Congress MLAs did not calm down despite repeated requests by the speaker, state legislative and parliamentary affairs minister Rushikesh Patel slammed the Congress for the chaos and moved a motion to suspend all of them for the entire day, including the second sitting.
As the opposition MLAs, led by Congress Legislature Party Leader Amit Chavda, refused to maintain decorum and sit at their respective places, speaker Shankar Chaudhary suspended them for a day after the ruling BJP moved a proposal for the same.
Since there are two sittings of the House on Tuesday, the speaker clarified that these MLAs stand suspended for the second sitting too.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
