Opp sore over ‘shortest’ Assembly budget session

SHILLONG, March 30: The seven-day first budget session of newly elected Assembly — the shortest ever for the state — may have suited the treasury benches, but not the opposition.
Some of the opposition members, who appeared to be sorry rather than bitter, said they felt constricted for want of time, having to prepare for participating in Governor’s address and budget speech, all in four days.
Some opposition members pointed out that the budget sessions in the past used to stretch up to 30 days giving all sides ample time. Past two decades the ruling dispensations have preferred to keep the number of working days to less than half of normal.
In defence, it was argued that for lack of participants in debates and sometimes lack of quorum, there were instances of house being adjourned without utilising full four hours sitting time.
This time around, the opposition uniformly felt the lack of sufficient time to do justice to their responsibility.
The Congress is unhappy that its members felt denied and could not express themselves fully. Ronnie V. Lyngdoh regretted that the members of the party wanted to flag a lot of burning issues but they effectively had just two days at hand. He further said 10 minutes allotted to each member was hardly enough.
He said despite the paucity of time, Congress raised the concerns of health workers, teachers, etc. “The time was too short. Since it was a budget discussion, we should have been given four-five days. We could have then dedicated ourselves  to the Governor’s speech, the budget speech, and the budget itself. But it is not possible to do all those things all in mere ten minutes,” Lyngdoh said.
His party legislator, Celestine Lyngdoh echoing the view said, “I think it is alright, except for the time allotted for the private member business which was too less.”
He said it was agreed verbally that the time would be extended whenever needed but it was not done.
“The queries and answers were not very satisfactory. They beat around the bush while replying to questions that we put forward. It killed precious time. Overall, we were not very happy with their replies,” he asserted.
On budgetary allocations, he observed, “Budgetary allocations are fine within the permissible limits.”
Another Congress legislator Charles Marngar, who had raised several issues on the interstate boundary, said he was not satisfied with Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma’s replies on border areas, tax collections, and deficit teachers.
“He (CM) gave assurance that he will take the matter (border) seriously and talk to the Assam government. So, let’s see,” the Mawhati MLA said.
Stating that the CM verbally assured to examine a host of issues that the Congress raised, Marngar said, “We are waiting to see the response in action.”