AGARTALA: The two-day session of Tripura Assembly began on a noisy note on Friday after Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath rejected opposition legislators’ demand for a judicial probe into the July 10th incident.
One shop keeper was shot dead and several others were injured when police had resorted to lathi charge on Congress workers in the heart of the city on July last.
Shortly after the routine question hour, Opposition Leader Ratan Lal Nath raised the issue and wanted to know why his adjournment motion on the spate of incidents was turned down. In reply, the Speaker said as Chief Minister Manik Sarkar will make a statement on the incident on Monday, there is no point of having discussion on Friday on the same issue. But opposition leader was not satisfied with the Speaker’s assurance.
“It was an unprecedented incident that one shop keeper was shot dead and several others were injured as police opened fire at agitators”, he said.
Sensing the gravity of the spate of incidents, Nath said that he had demanded judicial probe into the incidents but to no avail.
He further alleged that the whole episode was the brain child of the Chief Minister to suppress the voice of people.
Opposition leader’s blunt allegation angered the ruling party MLAs who had strongly objected to it leading to verbal fight between opposition bench and treasury bench.
Finding no other alternative, the Speaker adjourned the House for 15 minutes and the same thing happened when the members reassembled.
When the House reassembled after lunch break, Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman expressed serious concern over the July incidents and the way Chief Minister remained silent on the issue.
Despite the Dy Speaker’s appeal for cooperation to run the House, Roy Barman alleged that it was very unfair the way Chief Minister remained silent even 54 day after the police atrocities.
CPM MLAs like Samir Deb Sarkar, Sudan Das and Sankar Prasad Dutta, however, alleged that opposition leader had faced wrath from the party leaders for organizing violent agitations on the admission in Tripura Medical College (TMC).
This angered the entire opposition bench prompting the members to rush to the well and started chanting slogan against the government.
As the situation was getting out of control, the Dy Speaker adjourned the House at 2.15 for the entire day.