Jaipur: Responding to the alleged phone tapping of state minister Kirori Lal Meena in the assembly on Thursday, minister Jawahar Singh Bedham said the phone was not intercepted.
"Telephone interception is allowed under the laws prescribed for the security of the state, maintaining public order and curbing crimes. All necessary provisions have been made in the law to prevent its misuse," he said.
To this, opposition leader Tika Ram Jully questioned the government on whether any action would be initiated against Meena for levelling the allegation.
"Meena has already made allegations against the government which should accept his resignation and initiate action against him," Jully said. He along with the opposition MLAs staged a walkout.
For an interception to be effective the additional chief secretary of the Home Department of the state needs to approve a proposal from authorised police officers. After the imposition, a committee under the chairmanship of the chief secretary will meet every two months to review the order, Bedham informed the assembly.
"A few days ago, a statement from Meena came out in the media in which he had talked about keeping his mobile phone on surveillance. The opposition demanded clarification from the government. But Meena has publicly denied this," he said.
"We are satisfied with your answer. Your cabinet minister accused you and you are saying the phone was not tapped. Now will you take action against him? This is not the first case as Meena levelled allegations ahead of Rising Rajasthan that there is a suspicion that he can disrupt the program," Jully said.
"Two things cannot happen. Your state president gave him notice and in reply, Meena didn't accept doing anything wrong and just said he should not have said things in public," he added.
Some people from the ruling party did not want the opposition leader to speak and some people from the ruling party also did not want the Chief Minister's speech to be peaceful. On this, the members of the ruling party stood up and started speaking.
When the ruling party MLAs objected to Jully's statement, the opposition members stood up and started speaking, leading to Speaker Vasudev Devnani's intervention.
