By Arun Pratap Singh
DEHRADUN, 18 Feb: As soon as the House assembled today for the morning sitting, Leader of the Opposition Indira Hridayesh insisted on postponing all the proceedings for the day and discussing the martyrdom of two Army officers from Dehradun, who made the supreme sacrifice in Jammu & Kashmir in the past 48 hours while fighting the enemy.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Pant and Speaker Prem Chand Aggarwal urged Hridayesh to take up the issue after the Question Hour as, by then, more information about the incident would become available. However, she did not budge and, therefore, the Speaker adjourned the Question Hour and allowed the discussion to proceed following the approval of the House for this.
Pant informed the House that the two Army officers from Dehradun, namely Major Chitresh Bisht and Major Vibhuti Dhaundiyal made the supreme sacrifice in the service of the country and made the nation proud.
While Major Chitresh Bisht was martyred when he was defusing an explosive device, Major Vibhuti Dhaundiyal was martyred while fighting terrorists. Along with him, three other army men also lost their lives.
Leader of the Opposition Indira Hridayesh and PCC Chief Pritam Singh, Surendra Singh Jena, Ganesh Joshi, Govind Singh Kunjwal, Karan Mahra and Munna Singh Chauhan also paid tributes to the martyrs, following which two minutes of silence was observed at the instruction of Speaker Prem Chand Aggarwal in the honour of the martyrs.
After this, the House was adjourned till 12.20 p.m. and when the House sat again, the Congress members remained absent. They were absent even during the budget presentation in the post lunch sitting of the House.
