Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly on Thursday passed third supplementary demand for grants - 2022-23 amounting Rs 41,43,60,71,652 for various departments amid the uproars of 13 suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs and one Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (Jogi) MLA.

The main Opposition BJP did not participate in the discussions on the third supplementary demand for grants. The BJP MLAs entered the well of the House, demanding the discussion in targeted killings of BJP workers in State.

The BJP MLAs, during the Zero Hour, brought an adjournment motion over the targeted killings of the BJP workers in State and demanded the Chair to accept the matter for discussion. But the Speaker rejected it. The BJP MLAs entered the well of the House and the Chair suspended all 13 BJP MLAs and one JCC(Jogi) MLA. Earlier, these MLAs were suspended twice. Amid uproars of the BJP MLAs, Congress MLAs Shailesh Pandey, Prakash Shakrajeet Naik and other MLAs participated in the discussions and hailed the works of Baghel-led government. The Congress MLAs also pulled up the BJP on various issues during the discussions. Deputy Assembly Speaker Santram Netam, who was in the Chair, frequently asked the suspended 14 MLAs to go out the House, but these MLAs continued to stage dharna in the well of the House. The BJP MLAs were creating uproar when the Congress MLAs were participating in the discussion on the third supplementary demand for grants. The suspended BJP MLAs - Leader of Opposition in Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly Narayan Chandel, Dr Raman Singh, Brijmohan Agrawal, Ajay Chandrakar, Punnulal Mohile, Shivratan Sharma, Dharamlal Kaushik, Nankiram Kanwar, Rajnish Singh, Dr Krishnamurthi Bandhi, Damrudhar Pujari, Saurabh Singh, Ranjana Dipendra Sahu and JCC (Jogi) MLA Pramod Kumar Sharma chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and other slogans in the House. These suspended BJP MLAs also raised slogans against the Congress MLAs. When CM Bhupesh Baghel, who is also holding finance portfolio, started delivering his speech on the third supplementary demand for grants in the House, the BJP MLAs continued creating uproar in the House. Amid uproar, in the House, the Chief Minister replied to the BJP MLAs that when his government wanted to start investigation in connection with Jhiram Ghati case, the BJP approached the Court to prevent the investigation.

A provision of Rs 900.85 cr has been made for Jal Jeevan Mission. Rs 700 cr has been provisioned for custom milling. Rs 460 cr has been provisioned for the Health Department. Rs 300 cr has been provisioned for School Education Department while Rs 362.16 cr has been provisioned for Energy Department. Amid the uproar, the third supplementary demand for grants-2022-23 was passed with voice vote in the House. The suspended BJP MLAs continuously created uproar for around two hours. Thereafter, Speaker of Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly Dr Charan Das Mahant revoked the suspension of all 14 MLAs and adjourned the House till 11 am on Friday. Later, talking to media, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ravindra Choubey said that it happened first time that the suspended BJP MLAs had created an uproar. Replying to a query on BJP’s allegations that the government is avoiding discussion over Naxal incidents, Choubey said that government is ready to talk on all issues. BJP MLA Brijmohan Agrawal talking to mediapersons that the BJP wanted to discuss over the targeted killings of the BJP leaders by Naxalites in Bastar region but the Congress government was not ready to discuss over it. The BJP MLA alleged that democracy is being murdered by the Congress government and the government was not ready to discuss sensitive issues like Naxal incident. Chhattisgarh is on top on Naxal incidents in the country.