CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Assembly witnessed noisy scenes on Thursday after BJP MLA Ashwani Sharma made a “girl child” remark in the House, with the ruling AAP criticising him and asking him to seek forgiveness from women in the state.The uproar broke out during Zero Hour after Sharma criticised the AAP government for blaming the Centre for every issue.Earlier, cabinet minister Barinder Kumar Goyal had accused the Centre of not supporting Punjab in earning revenue from sand mining in the state.Rejecting opposition parties’ claim of illegal sand mining, Goyal said Punjab would have earned more than Rs 20,000 crore from mining if the Centre had supported it.Reacting to Goyal’s statement, Sharma countered the minister’s charge, saying the AAP government blamed the Centre for everything.“Your situation is such that if a girl child is born, then the Centre is at fault and if a boy takes birth then it is (your) hard work,” said Sharma.“You turned it into a platform for making political statements. You blame the Centre for every issue,” the BJP MLA added.The Pathankot MLA’s remark drew strong reactions from the treasury benches, with cabinet minister Aman Arora calling it a “discriminatory mindset”.“Do you differentiate between a boy and a girl? It is a discriminatory mindset,” he said.“Such a mindset cannot be tolerated,” Arora said, asking Sharma to seek an apology from daughters and women in the state.Arora further criticised Sharma, saying girls are excelling in every field and bringing laurels.Facing criticism from the treasury benches, Sharma said it was just a phrase.He asked the Assembly speaker to expunge his remark from the Assembly records if it was unparliamentary.Later, speaking to reporters, Sharma said he was referring to the Aam Aadmi Party’s mindset of blaming the Centre for everything.He, however, expressed regret over his remark if it hurt anybody’s sentiments.(With inputs from PTI)