Heated arguments disrupt House on first day
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, February 28 2024: Heated arguments between the treasury and opposition benches disrupted proceeding of the House twice on the first day of the 5th Session of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly on Wednesday with the opposition members disapproving 'over rule' and 'bulldozing' attitude of the ruling side.

Opposition members told media persons after end of Wednesday's session that there is no meaning of sitting in the House in view of Ruling side's 'over rule' of all the existing rules of the House illegally and 'bulldozing' matters raised by Opposition in the name of ruling of the House.

When the speaker took up businesses of the day one by one, Leader of the House chief minister N Biren Singh the 6th report of the Business Advisory Committee, 2024 .

However, Opposition members Th Lokeswar and K Meghachandra proposed to amend the report and also drew attention of the House that the matter had already been apprised to the speaker in written.

The Opposition members also argued that Business Advisory Committee report could be amended as per Rule 269 or the Leader of the House with powers conferred under Rule 271 could list only the agenda relating to the ongoing violence.

While sidelining the matter raised by the Opposition members, the speaker took up further agenda and allowed the Leader of the House to continue the proceeding further.

However, Opposition members insisted on amending the Business Advisory Committee report and passing of the amended report thereby resulting in a heated argument between the two sides and disrupted proceeding of the House.

Later, chief minister Biren said that the ongoing session will have Calling Attention and everything could be discussed.

Though the schedule of the session had already been fixed by the Business Advisory Committee, any agenda could be discussed till 12 midnight, he said and drew attention of the speaker to give a strong ruling against deliberate attempt to disrupt proceeding of the House.

When Wednesday's session was about to end, Sugnu MLA K Ranjit strongly alleged that the nearly 10 months violence has severely downgraded respectable position of the chief minister, speaker and elected members.

The violence had taken lives of hundreds of innocent people and thousands have rendered homeless, he said and demanded that responsibility of the present crisis should be fixed on 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs including two ministers.

However, chief minister N Biren intervened quickly and suggested that the matter could be discussed by taking an appropriate time.

When the chief minister said that he does not want to listen unanswerable points raised, the proceeding of the House witnessed second disruption of the day.

After emerging out of the assembly, MLA K Ranjit told media persons that the ongoing assembly session is an unavoidable one as at least one session is a must in six months.

The ongoing attack by Kuki-Zo community have killed many emerging youth who were yet to handle guns properly and 8 Kuki-Zo MLAs and two ministers are responsible for the killings.

Separate administration demand raised by the 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs by taking advantage of the almost ten months violence is either separate state or Union Territory.

Whether the demand could be met or not is another thing but the present government refused to conduct assembly session despite intense pressure from the people and CSOs, Ranjit said adding that all the agendas for the ongoing session are government agendas.

According to K Ranjit, the ongoing session has no agenda to discuss the report of Privilege and Ethics Committee against 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs.

What the Opposition has been demanding is a debate on report by tabling the same in the House but the Ruling side is reluctant to have a debate.

People think that there are much time for discussion in five days sitting but only two members are allowed to speak in a Calling Attention motion and not more than two Calling Attention motion could be moved in a day for the ongoing session.

Apart from this, the House could take resolution only on Friday in a week and accordingly the ongoing session has only one day for taking resolution.

However, the state is facing numerous crucial issues like Suspension of Operation (SoO), NRC, border fencing and others, which need to be discussed in the House.

According to Ranjit, the Ruling side may pass any financial Bill in the ongoing session but should give enough time for discussion in the House to end the ongoing violence.

Another Opposition member MLA K Meghachandra also told media persons that Leader of the House tabled Business Advisory Committee report in the House and nothing could be discussed without listing in the report.

Accordingly, the Opposition bench demanded amendment to the report but the Ruling side rejected it.

Every Rule of the House had been 'bulldozed' by the Ruling and hence there is no meaning of Opposition in the House, he added.

Opposition member MLA Th Lokeswar also contended that 'bulldozing' of every Rule of the House by Leader of the House by utilizing powers conferred under Rule 271 indicates that the government does hot take the ethnic violence seriously.

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