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Pandemonium in Assam House over flood relief

Guwahati: The Assam Assembly witnessed pandemonium on the first day of the four-day session that began on Monday when the Opposition stalled the proceedings on the issue of flood relief, forcing Speaker Tanka Bahadur Rai to adjourn the House four times.

Barring submission of supplementary demands and reports by the treasury bench amidst noisy protests, no business on the agenda, including the Question Hour, could be conducted.

As soon as the proceedings began, Leader of the Opposition Brindaban Goswami drew the attention of the Speaker to the fact that all the major Opposition parties — the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India — had brought separate adjournment motions and insisted that all other business for the day should be adjourned to facilitate a discussion on the flood situation and relief distribution.

The Speaker, however, did not allow him to move the adjournment motion and asked him to raise it after the Question Hour. Mr Goswami and other Opposition members insisted that there was no bar on suspension of Question Hour and wanted the adjournment motion to be allowed. They said that the police resorted to firing on flood affected people in Chenga constituency.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bharat Narah said that the Government was ready to discuss the flood issue after the Question Hour. As the Opposition parties insisted on their demand, AGP legislator from Chenga consitutiency Liakat Ali khan rushed to the well of the House to draw the Speaker’s attention to the firing.

The trouble began soon after and led to uproarious scenes, amidst which the Speaker asked Mr Khan to withdraw from the House for his “unruly behaviour.”

The Opposition parties described the Speaker’s ruling as one-sided and pleaded with him to review it. They also demanded that Parliamentary Secretary (Home Affairs) Dildar Rezza also be asked to withdraw from the House. When the House met for the fourth time, after two adjournments, the Speaker announced that a two-and-half-hour discussion would be allowed at 4 p.m. However, the Opposition continued to insist that the action against the AGP member be reviewed before it took part in the discussion.

Later, the Congress Legislature Party alleged that the Opposition parties and the Leader of the Opposition “never wanted to discuss the flood problem and made the withdrawal of the AGP member an issue only to avoid taking part in the discussion as they had nothing specific to discuss.”

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