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Rabri Devi apologises for MLA manhandling

Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi today apologised in the state assembly for the incident of manhandling of Champaran Vikas Party legislator Dilip Verma in the House on March 20.

Replying to a heated debate on the issue, which was taken up by suspending question hour as decided by the business advisory committee, the chief minister admitted that there had been "unsavoury" incidents in the House.

However, her apology failed to pacify Opposition members who staged a protest sit-in in the well of the House, claiming not to understand what the chief minister had said.

Speaker Deo Narayan Yadav also failed to calm the agitated members and had to adjourn the House till after lunch.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Upendra Prasad Verma declared that the Rabri Devi government was not opposed to setting up a committee to probe the alleged manhandling of Verma.

But he pointed out that the Opposition members's act in rushing to the speaker's podium to obstruct Governor A R Kidwai from addressing the legislature and the act of offering a sari and a dhoti to the chief minister should also be looked into by the proposed committee. The committee would be announced later by the speaker.

Earlier, as soon as the House met for the day, several opposition members demanded an an unconditional apology from the chief minister.

The speaker admitted to the unsavoury acts by some members of the House, saying they were not only a matter of shame for the House but for the entire state.

UNI

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