Bedlam in Tripura assembly over financial wrongdoings

The opening day of the month-long budget session of the Tripura assembly Friday witnessed ruckus over alleged corruption in the Left Front-ruled state.

When Governor Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya sought to read the first and last pages of his prepared customary speech, the opposition Congress demanded that the complete speech be read and displayed placards alleging corruption in the state.

Opposition legislator Ratan Lal Nath, referring to scams in government spending, urged the governor to read the entire speech.

The opposition legislators, led by opposition leader Sudip Roy Barman, rushed to the well of the house when the governor asked Nath to go out of the house for making noise.

Acharya, a former pracharak (a full-time campaigner) of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, left the house after reading the first and last pages of his 37-page written speech, prepared by the Communist Party of India-Marxist -led Left Front government headed by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.

The house witnessed pandemonium once again when assembly speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath rejected Barman's adjournment motion wherein he alleged that a scam of over Rs.600 crore had been found in different blocks and government schemes in the state.

"Siphoning of several hundred crores of rupees sanctioned under various central government schemes has been established by government auditors but the Left Front government continues to remain silent," an agitated Barman told the house.

Later, the disgruntled opposition MLAs walked out of the house in protest against the speaker's rejection of the adjournment motion, which sought to discuss in the house the alleged financial irregularities in Tripura.

The opposition parties, including Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, have been organising protests for several months against alleged financial wrongdoings in Left Front-ruled Tripura.

The state government has suspended many officials and the police have arrested many of them for their reported involvement in financial wrongdoing.

The budget session of the Tripura assembly began Friday and would continue till March 3 with a break in between.