Bhopal: Former chief minister Kamal Nath , LoP Govind Singh return ‘China-assembled’ tablet in Assembly

Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): Former chief minister Kamal Nath and leader of opposition Dr Govind Singh on Thursday returned the electronic tablets given to them during the presentation of Budget in the Assembly. The two Congress leaders returned the gadget to the Assembly citing various reasons. LoP Singh alleged that the tablets were ‘assembled in China’, and there was possibility that the state information in the tablet could be stolen. Citing the reason, the LoP returned the tablet. While Nath returned his tablet citing three reasons- ‘It is not in accordance with the tradition of the state Assembly; It is assembled in China and thirdly the PCC chief said that he doesn’t need the tablet’.

In the process of becoming the e-Vidhan Sabha, the Assembly had distributed tablets to the MLAs on March 1 the day the State Budget was presented in the House. The finance minister had presented the state's first digital Budget from his tablet. Instead of the hard copies of the Budget statements, the legislators were given tablets for the e-Budget. Congress leaders were not happy with Assembly going digital as they claimed the many legislators were not tech savvy and would not be in position to use tablets.

 Tablet issue raised during zero hour: Raising the issue of tablet in the Assembly during Zero hour, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Dr Govind Singh said that tablets given to MLAs on Wednesday have ‘arrived from China’ and on it, ‘Assembled in China’ is written. When Central government had banned 40 apps of China and Shivraj Chouhan government had banned Chinese crackers, then importing tablets from China is not in the interest of the country. He feared that data of elected representatives might get stolen.

Tablet is of Apple Co: HM

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Narottam Mishra, replying to the allegations said that the tablet is of Apple Company which has its establishments in different parts of the world. Assembled word means separate things are manufactured at different places.

Sitasharan accuses Cong of promoting Naxalism

BJP MLA Dr Sitasharan Sharma made a scathing attack on Congress by alleging that it promotes Naxalism. Sharma was taking part in the discussion done on Governor’s Speech in the Assembly on Thursday.

He claimed that Sukma incident (in which Congress top leadership of Chhattisgarh got eliminated) was conspired by Congressmen itself. He asserted that Congress had attended the meeting of CPI(ML) in Bihar. “They (Congress) attend the armed meetings,” he alleged.

Congress took strong objection on his assertion, leading to pandemonium in the house. As treasury bench and opposition got indulged in trading charges, the Chairperson adjourned the house for five minutes.

Bala Bachchan raises sapling scam: During the question hour, Congress MLA Bala Bachchan raised the issue of massive irregularities done in the name of plantation in Barwani and Sendhwa forest division of his constituency. He claimed that 40 lakh plant saplings were planted on the same land in eight years. He demanded probe into the case. He was of the view that massive corruption took place in plant sapling purchase and plantation. Forest Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah said the then officers of 2018, 2019, 2020 have done the irregularities, neither GST number was taken nor TDS was deducted. The recovery of the same would be done and action will be taken against guilty officers. Bala Bachchan was not satisfied with the government reply. He claimed that plant saplings were not planted but government withdrew the money.