8 questions left out, lack of quorum in Assam Assembly

Assam Assembly witnessed an embarrassing situation with a large number of MLAs absenting themselves during the question hour which led to the leaving out of as many as eight questions.

Even MLAs who had asked the questions which were listed for answering during the question hour, were absent Thursday. As a result only five questions were answered.

The quorum bell had to be rung thrice in a span of two hours to call in members of the House as the number of MLAs present in the house was lower than the required minimum.

The quorum is one-sixth of total number of members of the house, which in the case of Assam is 21 as the assembly has a strength of 126 members.

An indignant speaker expressed his dissatisfaction over the large number of MLAs from all political parties remaining absent during the ongoing Budget session of the assembly.

The questions which were left out included four from Congress and two each from ruling BJP and opposition AIUDF.

The Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia (Cong) was among those who had asked a question and was absent.

"What is the use (of the questions)? You give questions and then you are not present. It is not a good sign," Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami said.

"Why are all (MLAs) absent today? There is no event or occasion also during the day!" he said adding the number of questions left out during the question hour today would be a record in the Assembly's history.

An assembly official said that as eight questions were left out the 13th question out of the usual 20 was reached, a rarity as even ten questions have been seldom answered in a day in the past several years.