Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: The Assam Assembly witnessed a stormy situation today when the combined opposition brought corruption allegations against Irrigation Minister Ashok Singhal. To bring the situation under control, the Speaker had to adjourn the House twice.
Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia moved a House adjournment motion. He alleged that the Irrigation Department had large-scale anomalies in awarding contracts. When he was the Urban Development and Housing Minister, the GMC had a multi-crore-rupee scandal in the purchase of super-suckers for de-silting drains.
The Speaker said, “No other motion is allowed on a day when there is a cut motion. I’ll consider it later.”
Not satisfied with the speaker’s statement, the opposition members said that large-scale corruption in awarding contracts has plagued the Irrigation Department, the farmers do not get water, and most of the irrigation machines have been lying defunct.
The Opposition raised the demand for forming a house committee to enquire into the corruption allegation in the department. To assert their demand, the opposition members rushed to the well and shouted slogans, leading the Speaker to adjourn the House.
When the House resumed, the opposition members rushed to the well with their demand for the formation of a House committee to enquire into the corruption allegations in the Irrigation Department. The Speaker adjourned the House again to restore normalcy in the House.
In his reply, Irrigation Minister Singhal said, “The state has a total of 28.62 lakh hectares of arable land, and 6.04 per percent of it gets irrigated water round the year. The state has 1,968 irrigation projects/schemes for the kharif season and 1,452 projects for the rabi season.”
The minister also admitted that 36 of the 50 points where shallow tube wells have been lying defunct due to various reasons like low voltage, flood damage, theft of parts, etc., in the Sorukhetri LAC.
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