Assam assembly: Oppn members walkout over FM's comment on standard of House

Members of the opposition Congress and the Raijor Dal on Tuesday walked out of the Assam assembly briefly to protest against state Finance Minister Ajanta Neog's comment that the standard of the House has "gone down" as questions are being asked "without any study".

A chaotic situation was witnessed during the Question Hour after the FM made the statement while responding to a query by Congress MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha on the state's expenditure.

"We had earlier said that political tourism has been going on by holding cabinet meetings at different places. We can save money by not doing so. Shouldn't we give free power to people like the governments in Delhi and Punjab?" asked Purkayastha.

In response to the query, Neog said holding cabinet meetings at different places has helped in improving the infrastructure of those areas.

"Only Rs 10-20 lakh are spent for holding a cabinet meeting outside Guwahati. We can't give 200 units of electricity free with such outlay... The members ask questions without any study. The standard of the House has gone down," she said.

Supporting her, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pijush Hazarika asserted that for conducting cabinet meetings in places like Dhemaji, Bongaigaon and Haflong, spending occurred for renovating the circuit houses only.

Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia, however, said, "why are the circuit houses repaired only during cabinet meetings? It should be done in the normal course."

Raijor Dal member Akhil Gogoi also asked whether the circuit house in his Sibsagar constituency will be repaired unless there will be any cabinet meeting there.

The ruling alliance partner Asom Gana Parishad's MLA Ramendra Narayan Kalita questioned the opposition members for "wasting the precious time" of the House.

Following Kalita's comment, the opposition members stood up and started shouting against the ruling alliance MLAs. The legislators of the treasury bench also got engaged in the verbal duel.

Speaker Biswajit Daimary urged everyone to settle down, but nobody paid heed to his request.

Suddenly, the Congress legislators and the lone Raijor Dal MLA staged a walkout.

"I want to run the House dignifiedly, but it looks like an LP (lower primary) school. When the Leader of Opposition and the chief minister say something, all should listen to them. It is unfortunate that such an atmosphere has occurred in the Assam Assembly," Daimary said.

He hoped that such a situation would never occur inside the House in future.

As soon as he completed his comment, the opposition reentered the House.

Neog, in her reply to Purkayastha's initial question, said the per capita loan on Assam stands at Rs 23,611 as of March 31, 2021.