From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Minority political party, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) on Monday forced brief adjournment of Assam Assembly on the first day of the Winter Session before walking out of it in protest after the Speaker declined to allow a special discussion on ‘availability of illegal weapons’ in communally sensitive Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council (BTDC) area.
The party’s legislators disrupted proceedings in the question hour, forcing Speaker Pranab Gogoi to adjourn the house for 10 minutes.
Soon after the proceedings restarted, 18 AIUDF legislators pressed for an adjournment motion, which the speaker refused to allow.
The developments in the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts have affected the overall development process in the state as most officials are busy dealing with it, the chief minister said.
“At such a time, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) should not politicise the issue further. They are trying to play politics over it,” Gogoi told reporters here.
As soon as the House assembled for the day, MLAs from opposition political party AIUDF raised demand before the Speaker to allow a discussion on the contentious issue of availability of illegal arms and ammunition in the BTC area and the steps taken by the State government so far to seize the same.
The BTC area witnessed a spell of communal riot between the Bodo tribe community and the Muslims in July this year, which had left over 100 dead and about 4 lakh people homeless.
The AIUDF MLAs created a din in the House demanding the Speaker Pranab Kumar Gogoi to set aside all other listed items in the day’s proceeding to allow discussion on the matter.
However, the Speaker refused to relent and adjourned the House for ten minutes amid din even before the Question Hour could be started. The AIUDF MLAS then walked out in protest and boycotted the House proceedings for the day.
As the speaker refused to admit the adjournment motion, the AIUDF legislators staged a walkout and later announced they would boycott the next four days of the session.
Party leaders, however, later told reporters that a final decision on the proposed boycott of the assembly session would be taken at a meeting.
Coming out of the House, the AIUDF MLAs told media that availability of the illegal sophisticated weapons in the BTC area had posed a serious threat to the common people as the area had been a witness to about eight spells of communal riot since 2003.
“Even the Governor of Assam, J B Patnaik has taken serious note of the rampant use of illegal sophisticated weapons during July communal violence in the BTC and instructed the police and the State administration to do everything possible to seize all the illegal weapons available in the area with anybody. But the State government seems hardy interested in the matter,” the AIUDF legislators said.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi later said there was no need for AIUDF MLAs to create a scene in the House as the Treasury Bench was ready with answer to the question already put by them over the issue of illegal weapons in the BTC area.
He accused the AIUDF of politicising the issue and alleged that AIUDF was partly responsible for adding fuel to the communal riot in the BTC.
We are also equally concerned over the situation in the BTC where normalcy is being slowly restored and riot-hit people are returning home.
On behalf of the government, Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain said that the house was prepared for a discussion but the matter should be brought before it in accordance with the rules. (With inputs from agencies)