Appointment of parl secretaries
SHILLONG: Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Speaker A.T. Mondal on Wednesday asserted that the matter pertaining to the appointment of parliamentary secretaries would be forwarded to the Rules Committee of the Legislative Assembly for opinion and necessary amendment of the provisions of the Legislative Assembly rule.
Mondal also asserted that he had received the letter from Chief Minister Mukul Sangma asking him to examine the provisions of the said rule and effect necessary amendments in this regard.
The Speaker, incidentally, admitted that the rules should have been amended before appointment of the parliamentary secretaries, but somehow ‘it skipped their eyes’.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said he would write to the Speaker to look at the provisions of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly rule and effect an amendment as per the mandate of the act.
The chief minister said he has gone through the Act and it is indicative of the parliamentary secretary rules confined to assignments which can be given to them in respect of monitoring of programmes.
He also said that the first Act which was enacted in 1991 has been repealed and accordingly, the new Act of 2005 does not come into any conflict with the provisions of the Constitution.
Even before the State government initiated steps to amend the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly rule which equated the rank of a parliamentary secretary to that of a minister, Parliamentary Secretary in charge Taxation, Lamboklang Mylliem, quit the post on Tuesday to avoid any legal complications.
Besides Lamboklang, the 17 parliamentary secretaries appointed by the State government are Comingone Ymbon, Samuel M. Sangma, Limison D. Sangma, Winnerson D. Sangma, Kennedy C. Khyriem, Cherak W. Momin, Brigady Marak, Sengnam Marak, Rophul S. Marak, Robinus Syngkon, Michael T. Sangma, Justine Dkhar, Ashahel D. Shira, Stephanson Mukhim, Celestine Lyngdoh, Noverfield R. Marak and Marthon Sangma.