SHILLONG: Assembly Speaker AT Mondal on Friday referred a privilege motion against the editor of The Shillong Times, Patricia Mukhim, to the Privilege Committee for criticising legislators in her column.
After Independent legislator John Leslee Sangma brought to the notice of the House the motion submitted by him regarding the criticism leveled by the editor in her column in the daily on March 17 against the legislators, the Speaker admitted the motion.
According to Sangma, the article published by her under the caption “Meghalaya Assembly debates: the banal, the bizarre and the boring” has breached the privilege of the House and also all members as her article contains “statements which insinuate that the members are debating on issues which are not in public interest and simply raising issues brought to them by interested groups”.
Sangma said that she had also ridiculed publicly the issues raised by the members in public interest without understanding the subject matter and had indirectly tried to create an opinion to lower the prestige of the House and all the members.
The legislator said her action amounts to obstruction of the rights of the members to raise issues which are of utmost public interest in House.
Later, the Speaker referred the matter to the Privilege Committee for examination and investigation.
