SHILLONG: The one-day special session of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly on Tuesday witnessed a short debate on the conduct of the House, especially on the issue of raising a point of order by Congress legislator PT Sawkmie.
A point of order is when a member draws attention to the violation of rules of the Assembly during a deliberation. While Health Minister AL Hek was giving a lengthy reply to a call attention motion, the mover of the motion, Sawkmie raised a point of order asking the minister to give only a brief reply.
However, this irked Chief Minister Conrad Sangma who said the MLA from Mawlai was raising a point of order every time without quoting the rules. “Now, I am making a point of order to drive home the point that frequent raising of point of orders is not desired,” he said amid a peal of laughter from some members of the House.
Assembly Speaker Donkupar Roy asked Hek to give only the points in reply to the call attention motion, to which Hek said he would read the reply.
To this, Sawkmie said he wanted the minister to reply to the points that he raised, especially on the plan to shift the construction site of the medical college at Umsawli.
Opposition leader Mukul Sangma then raised a point of order under Rule 300 and pointed to Rule 54 (a) and said the minister should be directed to conform to the rules.
Mukul said after the call attention is raised, the minister can make a brief statement or lay the statement on the table of the House.
However, Conrad asked the speaker to allow the minister to continue with the reply to which the Speaker said, “The minister is allowed to reply.”
Following the confusion, Hek said he forgot where he had ended his reply.
When Hek repeated what he had already read, the speaker interrupted and remarked that the minister was repeating the reply. Later, Hek proceeded with the reply.