Jharkhand Budget passed in 16 minutes, House adjourned a week earlier

Ranchi, Jan 30 : The Jharkhand Budget for 2018-19 was on Tuesday passed in barely 16 minutes without any discussion and the assembly was adjourned sine die a week ahead of schedule.

When the House assembled at 11.00 a.m, the opposition members once again raised the issue of removal of Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma, Director General of Police (DGP) D.K. Pandey and Additional DGP (ADGP) Anurag Gupta.

The first-half of the day's sitting got washed out due to the ruckus over opposition's demand.

In second-half, when the House reassembled at 2.00 p.m, the opposition members once again trooped into the Well of the House demanding removal of the officials.

Speaker Dinesh Oraon asked Congress legislator Sukhdeo Bhagat to move a cut motion over the issue, but the MLA refused, citing that the House was not in order. 

At this stage, the state government tabled all the departments' budgets together and got those passed in 16 minutes without any discussion. As per the provisions, the departments' budgets have to be discussed separately before being passed by the assembly.

Thereafter, the Speaker adjourned the House session sine die, though it was scheduled to last till February 7.

The session which started on January 17 could not function for a single day as the opposition was adamant on their demand to remove the three top officials. 

The opposition has accused Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma of doing nothing to prevent fraudulent withdrawals from the Chaibasa treasury as the then Deputy Commissioner of West Singhbhum in the early 1990s.

The fraudulent withdrawals that took place in the Animal Husbandry Department were linked to the fodder scam.

DGP Pandey drew the wrath of opposition members following a shootout in Latehar district in 2015, in which reportedly innocent persons were killed on the pretext of a gun battle with Maoists.

As for ADGP Gupta, the opposition alleges that he used unfair means to influence the Rajya Sabha polls in 2016.