GUWAHATI, July 7: Leader of Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia on Wednesday slammed chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for stating that “constituencies with Opposition MLAs will be solely run by guardian ministers.”
The Sarma-led government had in May introduced the concept of “guardian ministers” who have been given the responsibility of two to three districts to take stock of welfare schemes, implementation of infrastructure projects, etc.
The chief minister had, while speaking in a public programme at Sorbhog in Barpeta district on Tuesday, said that guardian ministers would be taking care of implementation of projects in constituencies while the “MLAs’ role is to attend Assembly and make laws”.
“The comment from the chief minister that the job of an MLA is to make laws in the Assembly only is frivolous. I strongly condemn the statement,” Saikia, who is a Congress MLA of Nazira in Sivasagar district, reacted.
“The chief minister openly showed that he has no regard for democracy when he said that constituencies with Opposition MLAs would be solely run by the minister. In a parliamentary democracy, the role of ruling party and Opposition is important and an MLA has an obligation to look after his constituency, apart from carrying out his official role,” the veteran Congress leader said.
“The ministers are responsible for carrying out the work of their departments efficiently and the officials are entrusted with the task of implementing government policies,” he said.
Saikia further pointed out that the “Indian Constitution does not mention anywhere that ruling party ministers can usurp the powers of the Opposition MLAs.”
“We all know that the primary responsibility of MLAs is to make laws. But still, MLAs of both ruling and Opposition parties are bound to work for development of their respective constituencies in a neutral way, in accordance with established precedent,” he said.
“For this, there is also a system of committees of different departments at the district and constituency level where the chairman is the local MLA, not the central minister, whether he belongs to the ruling or Opposition party,” Saikia said.