Turmoil inside Bihar Vidhan Sabha streets of Patna over Police Bill

    Patna, Mar 23 (PTI) A bill seeking to arm Bihar police
with alleged draconian powers on Tuesday left the assembly
virtually paralysed and the state capitals streets in turmoil
as RJD workers, led by Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, clashed with
security forces upon being thwarted from reaching the Vidhan
Sabha premises in a huge procession.
    Yadav had, at a press conference in the morning,
announced that he would be leading a gherao of the Vidhan
Sabha premises while on the floor of the House an adjournment
motion was moved by his party legislators over the Bihar
Special Armed Police Bill, 2021.
    No sooner than the House assembled at 11 am, the
opposition legislators began raising slogans in protest
against the bill.
    Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinhas plea for raising the issue
at an appropriate time went unheeded and, in exasperation, he
adjourned the proceedings till noon.
    In the meantime, a large number of RJD workers, led by
Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav and
some other MLAs, gathered at the JP Golambar in the vicinity
of the Gandhi Maidan from where they marched in a procession
towards the Vidhan Sabha premises, about three kilometers
away.
    Before leading the march, Yadav had also tweeted the
famous Urdu couplet 'sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein
hai, dekhna hai zor kitna baazu e qatil mein hai', dropping
ample hints that he was bracing for a do-or-die battle.
    A huge contingent of police was deployed along the
route in view of the procession having been taken out without
seeking permission from the administration and the agitators
not following COVID-19 norms like wearing of face masks.
    At the Dak Bungalow crossing, the RJD leaders were
stopped by the police personnel and they retaliated by pelting
the security personnel with stones. Water cannons were pressed
into use following which the agitators began to disperse.
    Meanwhile, uproarious scenes rocked the Vidhan Sabha
again when it reassembled at noon and the oppositions
adjournment motion was rejected, prompting the Speaker to
adjourn the proceedings till 2 pm.
    The bill, which was introduced last week, seeks to
rename the Bihar Military Police, give it more teeth and
allegedly empowers the force to arrest people without a
warrant. PTI AR NAC
MM MM

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)