The second day of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly witnessed uproar between the ruling and opposition members during the discussion on the rain related disaster the state witnessed this monsoon season.

The motion for discussion on the issue was moved by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu yesterday in the House under Rule 102 stressing on the need to declare the natural calamity as a national disaster.

The members of the ruling and opposition raised slogans against each other, when Congress MLA Sunder Singh Thakur presented the figures of the monetary relief package the then previous UPA government had released in the Kedarnath and Bhuj tragedies.

Thakur taking a dig said that the incumbent Central Government has not provided any relief package.

He appealed to the BJP members to cooperate with the state government during the hour of crisis instead of politicizing the issue.

BJP MLA Randhir Sharma taking part in the deliberations raised questions on the resolution to declare the natural calamity as a National disaster.

Expressing doubts on the seriousness of the state government in the management of the crisis when disaster struck, he said that the Chief Minister should have called an all-party meeting so as to jointly handle the crisis.

Now the state government is seeking the support of the opposition to pass the resolution to declare the catastrophe as a National disaster.

“Leave aside the all-party meeting, even the cabinet was called 10 days after the disaster struck the state,” he alleged.

The ministers in the Sukhu led government even lacked coordination, instead some of them were even seen competing with each other to meet the union ministers at the centre, and such a competition is not good in such an hour of crisis.

The opposition created a ruckus which was equally responded to by the ruling members.

Following intervention of the Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania the situation calmed down.

Leader of Opposition, Jai Ram Thakur taking part in the discussion accused the Congress government of coming to power by misleading the public.

Independent MLA Hoshiyar Singh blamed man-made reasons for the destruction caused in the state due to rain fury including unscientific mining of river beds, and vertical cutting of hills to pave way for roads.

He said that 21 MLAs of the ruling and opposition owned stone crushers and they too have a role to play in the disaster and there is need to contemplate on it, he charged.

Hoshiyar Singh further said that keeping in view of Shimla’s vulnerability to earthquakes there is a need for a policy to shift the offices from Shimla, so as to ease the burden of the load on the carrying capacity of Shimla town.

Congress MLA Mohan Lal Brakta participating in the discussion said that all the roads have been restored for small vehicles in his Rohru Assembly constituency.

Despite the previous government having left behind a debt burden of Rs 75,000 crore, earnest efforts have been made by the state government to provide relief to the affected families.

Other members Anil Sharma, Kishori Lal, Nand Lal, Vinod Kumar, Harish Janartha also participated in the discussion.