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Presspersons walk out of Assam Assembly

Sushanta Talukdar

Reporters take exception to the Speaker's ruling

Guwahati: The Assam Assembly witnessed a walkout by reporters from the Press Reporters' Gallery on the last day of the three-day session over a ruling of the Speaker Tanka Bahadur Rai on the authenticity of newspaper reports.

The reporters took strong exception to the ruling of the Speaker, in which, he said, "all newspaper reports are not authentic." Trouble began when Bharatiya Janata Party member Ranjit Dutta drew the attention of the Government to a newspaper report regarding the death toll due to malaria in the State. Mr Dutta said while the official death toll in malaria in Sonitpur district was stated to be eight, the newspaper report stated that the GOC of the Army's 4 Corp based at Tezpur had claimed that 85 people had died.

The Health Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, said the newspaper report had no basis and official death toll was eight and not 85. Mr. Sarma also asked if the member had any proof that the GOC had really made any such statement. Amid heated exchanges between members of the Treasury and Opposition benches, the Speaker gave a ruling that all newspaper reports are not authentic and ordered that portion of Mr. Dutta's speech referring to the GOC be expunged from the proceedings.

The reporters in the Press Reporter's Gallery, however, took exception to the Speaker's ruling and walked out of the gallery.

Later, the Speaker made a written announcement that he did not intend to make any sweeping remarks over the authenticity of all newspapers and expressed regret if his comments had hurt presspersons.

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Presspersons walk out of Assam Assembly

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