Assam Legislative Assembly: Ruckus makes Speaker Adjourn House Thrice

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The Assam Legislative Assembly had to be adjourned thrice today, thanks to the ruckus created by both the opposition and the ruling benches.

That opposition members rushing to the well of the Speaker to assert their demands is not new. However, today the state Assembly witnessed ruling party MLAs too rushing to the Speaker’s well to assert their demand.

After the Question Hour, the opposition raised their demands for the Speaker to allow them to move their four adjournment motions. The motions include: the Congress wanted a discussion on the Umrangso coal mine disaster, the CPI (M) wanted a discussion on the alleged syndicate raj, and the AIUDF wanted a discussion on the plight of the detenus in detention camps.

The ruling party MLAs, on the other hand, demanded a discussion on the report of Justice (Retd) Biplab Kumar Sharma on the cash-for-job scam in the APSC.

The ruckus began when the Speaker refused to allow any of the motions on the ground that the day was meant for the debate on the Governor’s address. The Speaker said, “The House can discuss the motions any day during the session, but not today as rules do not permit it.”

Aggrieved at the Speaker’s statement, the opposition MLAs rushed to the Speaker’s well and asserted their demands for allowing them to move their motions. They displayed placards, shouted slogans, etc. The ruling party MLAs also rushed to the well and raised their demand for a discussion on Justice (Retd.) BK Sharma’s report on the APSC scam. The resultant unruly situation led the Speaker to adjourn the House for twenty minutes.

The opposition and the ruling MLAs created the same situation when the House resumed after twenty minutes, prompting the Speaker to adjourn the House for ten minutes again.

The Speaker had to adjourn the House for twenty minutes yet again when the MLAs of both benches continued their ruckus after the resumption of the adjourned House. When the House resumed, Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma came to the scene and requested the Speaker to allow discussions on all the issues—coal mine disaster at Umrangso, syndicates, detention camps, and discussion on Justice Sharma’s report. “The government is ready to discuss all the issues. I request the Speaker to fix any date, barring today and tomorrow,” he said.

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