MP Assembly's monsoon session begins, tributes paid to farmers

Bhopal: The opening day of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly's monsoon session was today adjourned after paying tributes to the departed leaders, including Union minister Anil Madhav Dave, and the farmers killed in police firing in Mandsaur last month. The House also paid tributes to the Amarnath pilgrims who were killed in a militant attack in Jammu and Kashmir on July 10.

The legislators observed a two-minute silence to pay homage to the departed souls, including Dave who died of cardiac arrest on May 18 this year. Recalling his association with Dave, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan termed him as an able administrator and organiser. Chouhan said Dave's death was an irreparable loss for him. He said that Dave served the country with dedication for his whole life and recalled his work for the protection of rivers and environment, especially for the conservation of river Narmada.

Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh remembered Dave as a good writer. "Whenever he wrote a book, he used to send a copy of it to my residence," Singh recalled. The Assembly paid rich homage to other leaders who passed away recently, including sitting MLA Prem Singh, former members of the House, Narayan Singh Pawar and Satyanarayan Agrawal, former Union minister Dr Dasari Narayan Rao, ex-MP Fatehbhanu Singh Chouhan and former DGP of Punjab, KPS Gill.

The legislators also paid tributes to the farmers killed in police firing during the cultivators' agitation in Mandsaur on June 6, the Amarnath pilgrims killed in the militant attack last week and those who died in fire in a cracker factory fire at Khairi village in MP's Balaghat district last month. The House was later adjourned till tomorrow.