Imphal, July 01 2009: Speaker of the manipur Legislative Assembly Dr S Budhichandra has conceded that the question of holding the election for the post of Deputy speaker during the sixth session of the Ninth Legislative Assembly remains uncertain as Leader of the house and chief Minister O Ibobi Singh is yet to formally comment on the matter.

Speaking to The Sangai Express ahead of the sixth session of the Assembly commencing from July 3, Dr Budhichandra reminded that upon receiving the resignation letter from the Andro Assembly Constituency's MLA Thounaojam Shyamkumar Singh to step down from the post of Deputy Speakership an Assembly Bulletin was issued accepting the resignation letter.

Nevertheless, all the 60 members of the House including Shyamkumar have been intimated to be present in the forthcoming session.

To a query, he disclosed that as the Assembly Secretariat is yet to receive a formal notice on Shyamkumar's detention his presence at the Monsoon session of the Assembly is expected.

The Speaker also opined that in case Shyamkumar is unable to attend the session the MLA might apply for leave in accordance to norms.

Informing that absence by a member for a total of 60 sitting days of an Assembly session stands to affect normal proceedings of the House under the Rule of Procedure and Conduct of Business, he also revealed that in the Fifth Session of the Assembly Shyamkumar was present for only three days.

As the post of Deputy Speaker had been remaining vacant after the MLA's resignation and since there is lack of communication from the Chief Minister on the issue the Assembly Secretariat is still in the dark on whether election to fill the vacant post would be held or not.

Mention may be made that after being elected on an MPP ticket from Andro AC, Th Shyamkumar was appointed the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly which he subsequently gave up before surrendering to a Court and sent to jail in connection with a pending case against him.

The ensuing Monsoon session to be held till July 27 will have 17 sittings out of which discussions and passing of the Governor's address is likely to consume two days.

It is informed that deliberation on the Budget Estimate 2009-2010 would take a similar number of days while the last few days would be reserved for discussion and passing of Appropriation No 3 Bill 2009 .

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