New Delhi: Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan has moved a breach-of-privilege motion in the Lok Sabha against Kerala IPS officer Yathish Chandra G H who refused to lift a ban on private vehicles to the base of the Sabarimala hill shrine even when the minister visited.
The Minister of State for Finance and Shipping told the house that the officer did not allow private vehicles beyond Nilakkal, citing a lack of parking facilities on the way to the shrine which had turned into a venue of protests against a Supreme Court order allowing all women to go there.
The speaker of the Lok Sabha can forward the minister’s notice to the committee concerned, which will decide on summoning the officer to hear him.
The top cop confronted Radhakrishnan at Nilakkal on November 21 when the BJP leader wanted his entourage to pass the police check point. The officer told the minister that private vehicles could not be let beyond that point because there were no parking facilities on the route where landslides were reported. When the minister insisted on carrying on with his plan, the officer asked him if he could take responsibility for the traffic snarl that would follow such a decision.
The minister refused and proceeded to the temple along with his party colleagues in Kerala in a bus operated by the state-owned transport corporation.
Radhakrishnan said that he viewed the officer’s remarks as an insult to a people’s representative. He said that he had been going on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala for 40 years and he could experience the hardships faced by pilgrims this year.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the officer had spoken to Radhakrishnan with respect.
A privilege motion is moved by a legislator in a state legislature or Parliament against anyone who has breached a privilege or right enjoyed by an MP, MLA or MLC. Such entitlements, known as Parliamentary privileges, are accorded to legislators for aiding the effective discharge of their duties. These are enjoyed individually or collectively by people's representatives.
