Oppn parties request Assembly Speaker to call a special

The opposition parties Tuesday requested the Assam Assembly Speaker to call for a special session before February 13 to discuss the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which is likely to come up in Rajya Sabha by next week.

Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami assured to discuss the matter with all the parties and take a decision by Wednesday.

All the opposition parties -- Congress, AGP and AIUDF -- had brought three different resolution to discuss the bill, but the speaker clubbed them together and made it one.

Raising the issue during Pending Resolution of private members, AGP MLA Phani Bhusan Choudhury cited rules that give chance to postpone an ongoing resolution and take up a new one if it is of immediate importance.

His party colleague Keshab Mahanta said: "The Parliament is ending on February 13 and the bill is likely to be raised in Rajya Sabha before that. We want to send an unanimous resolution from Assam Assembly. So please allow us to discuss the matter before that."
AGP's Ramendra Narayan Kalita said: "Today's resolution is more important than the pending resolution. I had my incomplete speech scheduled for the pending resolution, but I will not complete my speech for the interest of the state."
On this, Goswami said: "Some of our rules are contradictory, but I don't want to go into details of those. I will call all of you later and discuss the matter. Accordingly I will take a decision by tomorrow."