Dehradun: Pandemonium prevailed in the Uttarakhand assembly on Wednesday as Congress MLAs repeatedly interrupted the proceedings by entering the well of the House and raising slogans against the BJP government for the delay in payment of dues of sugarcane farmers. While the Congress lawmakers strongly raised the issue inside the House, former CM Harish Rawat along with his reporters sat on a protest outside the assembly in support of cane farmers.As soon as BJP MLA from Khanpur Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion got up to put his question, the Congress members entered the well and demanded an immediate discussion on the issue. Raising slogans, the opposition party leaders interrupted the proceedings. During the protest, heated verbal discussions were witnessed especially among the Congress and BJP legislators representing Haridwar, which is the major sugarcane belt of the Himalayan state.With the situation turning grim, speaker Prem Chand Agarwal adjourned the House for 30 minutes at 11.15 am. On two more occasions, it was adjourned and when the MLAs returned again, a chaotic scene was witnessed. Thereafter, the speaker asked to resume with the House proceedings. The issue annoyed three BJP legislators of Haridwar — Sanjay Gupta, Pranav Singh Champion and Deshraj Karnwal — as their constituencies have good number of sugarcane farmers. As a result, the three sat on a protest outside the office of leader of opposition Indira Hridayesh in the state assembly building.Hridayesh said, “It is a highly sensitive issue and there is an immediate need of a debate. Farmers are facing a tough time in the state and country but nothing is being done for them. To ensure that a positive outcome comes from the discussion, we have raised the demand for an immediate debate. The ruling party has been delaying the issue but does not want to discuss or solve it.” She added that the intention was not to disrupt the House proceedings but to ensure some positive outcome for the cane farmers.Upset by the repeated interventions, the question hour which had two important questions on cane farmers had to be cancelled for the day.Champion said, “On one end, the Congress leaders do not raise their question in the question hour and when we — the ruling party — put a question to the government for the welfare of farmers, the Congress MLAs create pandemonium and do not allow the House to work.”Finance minister Prakash Pant said that for the crushing season of 2017-18 in cooperative and public sector mills an amount of Rs 440.41 crore has been cleared and no amount is pending. In the private sector sugar mills, a total of 270.26 lakh quintal cane has been crushed and against the payment of Rs 851.98 crore, Rs 655.18 crore has been cleared. “For the payment of pending dues to farmers, we are providing loans on low interest and it will benefit 72,000 farmers across the state. We have been constantly working on the issue,” said the minister.

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