- विज्ञापन -
Dharamsala: Himachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri on Tuesday said the question raised by a BJP legislator in the Assembly “seems to be information sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act as the reply was 250 pages long.”
Replying during a question-answer session to BJP member Lokender Singh’s four questions regarding the online bids invited and details of the earnest money paid by the Jal Shakti Department in his Anni constituency from April 1, 2023, till November 15, Agnihotri, who also holds the Irrigation and Public Health Department portfolio, said it was not an Assembly question but an information sought under an RTI Act.
“The question is either drafted by an XEN (Executive Engineer) or by a contractor. It is only XEN who can draft such detailed questions,” Agnihotri added. The five-day Winter Session of the Assembly began in Dharamsala, the state’s winter capital in Kangra district, on Tuesday.
Holding a set of voluminous papers of the minister’s reply, the first-time member Lokender Singh, not satisfied with the written as well as verbal reply of the minister, asked Speaker Kuldeep Pathania to allow him to ask a supplementary question, but the latter turned the request down and allowed the House to proceed further.
In the 68-member Congress-ruled Assembly that got elected in December last year, 23 are first-timers — 14 of the Congress, eight of the BJP and one Independent.
