Chandigarh: Punjab's six-day Assembly session got off to a stop-start beginning on Thursday, with the House adjourning after just nine minutes and six seconds following obituary references, even as the Opposition built up pressure on Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over the state's drug crisis.
Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan announced that the House would meet again on Friday. Members paid tributes to anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota, who was shot dead in Mansa on October 13, and to eight MGNREGA workers killed in a road accident in Sangrur. The House observed a two-minute silence.
Outside the Assembly complex, Congress MLAs burnt an effigy of Mann, accusing the Aam Aadmi Party government of failing to check gangsterism and the illicit drug trade. Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa and Punjab Congress chief Pargat Singh were present.
Former Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar joined family members of a victim in a protest and questioned Mann's failure to meet the aggrieved family. "Chief Minister, at least meet this family. Uphold the honour of your turban. If you can order a CBI investigation while travelling in an aircraft, why can't you meet them?" he said.
Police detained protesters and removed them from the area.
Jhota's killing has become a flashpoint. The CBI has registered a case and taken over the probe after the state government transferred the investigation to the central agency.
The session's agenda includes reopening the historic Silk Route for trade, renaming emergency wards in government hospitals after Bhai Ghanaiya Ji, and seeking transparency in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The government is also set to move a resolution seeking the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.