J&K Speaker allows discussion on civilian killings in Valley

Jammu: Reversing his earlier ruling, Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta on Wednesday decided to allow an hour-long discussion on civilian killings in the Valley during 2017.

Earlier, the entire opposition had walked out of the state assembly after Gupta disallowed an adjournment motion moved by them seeking a discussion on the killings and a spike in militancy-related incidents in the Valley.

The opposition members stood up from their seats and caused an uproar as the Speaker disallowed the motion moved by the National Conference (NC), the Congress and Yusuf Tarigami of the CPI(M).

Later, after the Speaker's decision allowing the discussion was communicated to them, the members came back into the House.

Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Sukhnandan Kumar had also walked out of the House after he approached the Speaker's podium alleging that his constituency was facing "biased approach" from the state government.

The House was scheduled on Wednesday to take up a discussion on Governor N.N. Vohra's address in the legislature on Tuesday.