Gandhinagar, Mar 3 (PTI) The Gujarat Assembly was adjourned for a brief period on Thursday following an uproar in the House after the opposition Congress demanded the resignation of Gujarat Minister of State for Home, Harsh Sanghavi, over the issue of seizure of drugs and liquor.

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When the House met again after the seven-minute long adjournment, a heated debate broke out again between the ruling BJP and opposition benches after former leader of opposition Paresh Dhanani accused the government of hiding facts regarding the seizure of heroin worth Rs 21,000 crore at Mundra Port of Kutch a few months ago.

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During the Question Hour before the adjournment, Sanghavi assured the House that Gujarat police had taken very strict action and done a commendable job in busting the illegal network of drugs and liquor trade in the state.

While responding to a question raised by Congress MLA Bhagabhai Barad about the action taken by the police in Gir Somnath and Rajkot districts, Sanghavi, who came prepared with figures, said as many as 8,986 FIRs were registered against the perpetrators in 2021 by police in both these districts.

Sanghavi added that Ahmedabad district police had busted a sophisticated racket, wherein a tech savvy drug dealer had contacted international drug dealers using Dark Web, acquired the drugs through air cargo deliveries and made payments through cryptocurrency.

Not impressed by Sanghavi's statement, Deputy Leader of Opposition, Shailesh Parmar, had alleged that despite such tall claims by the minister, liquor worth Rs 200 crore and drugs worth Rs 370 crore were caught in the last couple years in Gujarat.

He even tried to put Sanghavi in the dock over the seizure of heroin worth Rs 21,000 crore at Mundra Port in September last year.

As soon as Congress whip C J Chavda sought Sanghavi's resignation over the issue, other Congress MLAs, who came with placards, stood up and started shouting slogans against the BJP government, alleging that it has failed to protect Gujarat's youths from this addiction.

Despite Sanghavi's repeated request not to politicise the issue and listen to his answer first, the sloganeering continued. When Congress MLAs did not retract despite repeated requests, Speaker Nimaben Acharya adjourned the House till the end of the Question Hour.

When the House met again after nearly seven minutes, Dhanani once again raised the issue claiming that the government did not mention about Mundra drug seizure in its written answer on a question raised by Congress MLA Poonambhai Parmar about the drug seizure in Kutch district during the last two years.

"So Kutch district is not part of Gujarat? Why does the government's answer not contain the seizure of drugs from Mundra port? We need an answer from the minister," Dhanani said.

After some heated debate over the issue, the speaker closed the chapter saying the minister cannot be compelled to answer in a particular way and there is no substance in the allegation made by the Congress.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)