The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Wednesday witnessed a ruckus over Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLA Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra’s allegation that his cut motions in the grants were erased.
The supposed grievance prompted Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather to seek an apology from him for allegedly misleading the public and media.
The Speaker said that the business of the house is conducted as per rule 227 of the Assembly, which requires MLAs to submit cut motions three days before the presentation of grants.
However, he said, members’ cut motions were received only a day before the grants were presented.
As the question hour concluded, the Speaker referred to Parra’s post on X, in which the PDP legislator claimed that he was not allowed to submit cut motions and that they were not included in the grants.
“You are an educated member and tried to influence public and media opinion with your remarks (on X). You attempted to mislead them. You should not have misled public opinion,” the Speaker said.
The Assembly is the highest platform for discussions and that Parra must apologise for his remarks, he added.
Parra, however, countered the charges, stating that he had submitted his cut motions following the pattern used in earlier grant presentations. “They were included then.” He was soon confronted by several National Conference (NC) members and an Independent MLA, leading to a brief uproar in the Assembly.
The Speaker then addressed the members of the treasury benches and Independent MLA Mehraj Malik, asking them to observe calm and sit down on their benches.
“As per rules, cut motions must be submitted three days before the introduction of grants in the House. However, you submitted your cut motions via email at 11.37 PM, just a day before. Cut motions need to be compiled and sent to the concerned departments for responses, which takes time. How can they be admitted in such a short span? You are supposed to be aware of the rules,” the Speaker said.
He said that 105 cut motions submitted by Parra had been admitted.
When Parra claimed that he was informed his cut motions would not be admitted, the Speaker and NC member demanded that he name the official who told him this.
“You need to be responsible. I want to close this issue,” the Speaker remarked.
Parra alleged that his questions in the cut motions were deliberately erased during the ongoing Budget session.
On Tuesday, as the Budget session was underway, Parra took to X and wrote that the J&K government is “nothing but an extension of the Governor’s rule to ratify the August 5 move.” — (PTI)
