TODAY -
House session winds up in 2 mins
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, March 03: The State Assembly today created a history of a sort when its business and proceeding were wrapped up within two minutes of commencement of the session, ironically reminiscent of the catchy one liner of the Instant Maggie Noodles advertisement, �Just two minutes�.

As none of the Opposition MLAs were present in the House for discussion, all the business of the Assembly were completed in two minutes and the Speaker pulled down the curtains for the day.

Opposition MLAs who have boycotted the session expressed surprise and said that such a session was unprecedented in the history of not only Indian Parliamentary Democracy, but also of the world.

Predictably, the entire Opposition bench staged a walk out as soon as Speaker TN Haokip entered the House to preside over the session.

The Opposition has been boycotting the session presiding over by Speaker TN Haokip after NSCN (I-M) linked his name to James Kuki, the main accused behind the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Baby Lungnila Elizabeth.

Notwithstanding the boycott, the Speaker took up the agenda of Question and Answer to proceed with the session.

But as Opposition members, who were to ask the questions, namely I Hemochandra, N Bihari and L Ibomcha were not present in the House, the Speaker announced that the Question and Answer session was over.

When Assembly Secretary Th Chourjit placed before the House, the Manipur Secondary Education Fifth Amendment Bill to which the Governor has given his assent, as there were no Opposition MLAs to take up the call attention and short direction discussion, the Speaker subsequently announced that the day's business and session has been wrapped up.

The session wound up so soon that some of the Ministers and Opposition MLAs could not even enter the House.

Addressing mediapersons after the end of the session at the Opposition Room of the Assembly, Opposition MLAs said that the today's session which got over within two minute of commencement of the session is the first of its kind not only in the history of the Indian Parliamentary Democracy but also of the world.

MLA O Joy said that Opposition members also have the desire to take part in the session and discuss important issues of the State.

But he questioned how they can do so when the session is being presided over by a person whose name has been linked to a child murderer.

Replying to a question, Joy said that the Government has not put up any proposal from its side for trying to solve the issue pertaining to the decision of the Opposition to boycott of the Assembly session as long as it is presided by TN Haokip.

However, it may be recalled here that Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh had appealed to the Opposition MLAs to reconsider their stand and take part in the Assembly session which began from March 1.Rejecting the appeal of the Chief Minister, Joy charged Chief Minister and his Council of Ministers with lacking knowledge of the Parliamentary practices and flayed Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh for not trying to settle the issue with the Opposition MLAs as leader of the House.





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