Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly was on Tuesday adjourned for half-an-hour following protests by opposition over gag on media.
Journalists boycotted the proceedings after they were barred by the government from taking their mobile phones and cameras inside the House. The order was later withdrawn.
However, journalists returned to the House only after the Speaker Kavinder Gupta apologised and assured such gag wouldn’t be repeated.
Opposition parties, including the main National Conference party, created a ruckus over the absence of media, as soon as the House reconvened today to discuss the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the state.
Gupta later adjourned the House until 2:30 pm after opposition created uproar over media gag and implementation of the GST.
Opposition MLAs belonging to the National Conference (NC), the Congress and Independents stood up on their seats and later rushed towards the Speaker’s chair as the four-day long special session started here.
Speaker Kavinder Gupta ordered marshalling out of Independent MLA Engineer Rashid and some other opposition MLAs as they raised anti-GST slogans.
The opposition parties including the NC, Congress and Independents said they were not against the GST per se, but were against the adoption of Amendment 101 in its present form.
The opposition believes it will infringe on the special status of the state.
They argued that surrendering collection of taxes to the GST Council would take away the financial autonomy of the state as guaranteed under Article 370 of the Constitution.
The opposition MLAs alleged that the ruling PDP under pressure from its BJP ally has decided to bulldoze through the GST implementation in the state.
Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in the country where the GST has not been implemented so far.
