Congress MLAs stage walk out in Assam Assembly

The Opposition Congress today staged walk-out from Assam Assembly after the Speaker rejected their prayer to move censure motion against Irrigation Minister Ranjit Dutta.
Congress had submitted an application to the Principal Secretary of Assam Assembly after ending of the Session on Tuesday, but the Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami today rejected it by saying "it is not in order".
"I have received the application to move no confidence motion censuring the Irrigation Minister. This is a Special Session called to pass the GST Bill. The rule 133 must carry the copy of the motion, which is not the case here," Goswami said.

He also said that "One cannot bring a no-confidence motion against an individual minister but only against a council of ministers."
He, however, asked the Chief Minister to make a statement in the House before conclusion of the day's business.
On this, the opposition Congress staged walked out by creating noisy scene.

Late in the afternoon, when all other businesses got over and the Special Session was to be adjourned sine-die, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary rose to read out the government's statement on behalf of the Chief Minister.
Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia said as the matter was not allowed to discuss, Congress would walk-out of the House again.

After this, Patowary said: "Congress does not have the courage to listen to the statement. If I start talking about scams in Irrigation Department during Congress period, it will be a Mahabharata."
Claiming that Congress government never arrested any secretary-level official from the secretariat, he said the aim of the BJP-led government would be to make Assam corruption free.
"The Irrigation Minister is responsible if he tries to protect the accused. But it is not the case here," Patowary said defending his cabinet colleague.
On March 28, Irrigation department Secretary Kujendra Doley was caught red handed while accepting bribe at his office chamber in the Secretariat by Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau of Assam Police.

The sleuths had seized Rs 54 lakh in cash from the Irrigation secretary's office chamber and over Rs 11 lakh, passbooks of six bank accounts, LIC policies besides other documents during raids carried out at his home.
The Congress claimed in the House that Doley had confessed to the Police that the bribes were collected on the alleged instructions of the Irrigation Minister.