Budget session begins: Opp walks out over price hike issue
HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, July 12: The first budget session of BJP-led government began on Monday with the entire Opposition, including Congress, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and CPI(M) staging a walk out after the speaker refused to allow an adjournment motion on the issue of price rise of fuel and other essential commodities.
The Congress, AIUDF and CPI(M) brought three adjournment motions to discuss the issue of rising prices of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and other essential items, but speaker Biswajit Daimary declined to accept the three notices stating that the fuel price is not a matter of the state government.
In a rare instance, the speaker, before allowing the respective Opposition members to talk on the admissibility of the motion, said that he has decided to cancel the three adjournment motions as the subject is ‘under the Union government’.
This led to an uproar in the House with the Opposition members criticising the speaker for not following the ‘assembly traditions’ to accept the grievances of the non-ruling parties.
“Why is price rise not an issue of the state government? It affects all the people of the state,” Independent MLA Akhil Gogoi said.
On this, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma asked the Opposition that under which rule the speaker should allow discussion on the admissibility of an adjournment motion.
Congress MLA Rakibul Hussain said, “It is the tradition of the House. And before talking about the admissibility of the topic, how can the speaker cancel the notices even before hearing them?”
With no side relenting and the House witnessing a noisy scene, Daimary allowed the Opposition to talk on the admissibility of the adjournment motion and stated that the matter will be discussed in the next meeting of the Business Advisory Committee of the Assembly.
Moving the motion, leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia said that the prices of petrol and diesel have increased 71 times since January this year, on the backdrop of an estimated 2.5 crore people having lost their jobs since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country.
AIUDF MLA Aminul Islam said, “It is a definite and urgent matter as required by the Assembly rule to discuss a topic under adjournment motion. Price of every item is rising on a daily basis and the poor people are affected due to this.”
CPI(M) MLA Manoranjan Talukdar said huge taxes on petroleum products have been levied by the Assam government and the Centre had earlier asked the states to cut the duties to reduce the prices.
“The state’s policies also affect prices of petrol and diesel. Also, the prices of essential commodities are rising rapidly. The lives of the citizens have become miserable,” he said.
Presenting the government version, Parliamentary Affairs minister Pijush Hazarika said the state is not directly involved in the prices of petroleum products.
“As per Rule 57, this topic is not admissible in the Assembly under the adjournment motion. Regarding the price rise of essential commodities, that can be raised through other devices,” Hazarika added.
State Health minister Keshab Mahanta also said that the speaker has the right not to allow the notices to be brought for discussion in the house.
The speaker then turned down the three notices saying that these commodities are not under the control of the state government.
The entire Opposition protested the speaker’s decision and came to the Well of the House with placards, which had various slogans regarding the price rise of essential items.
“If we are not allowed to talk about price rise, then it is a very serious issue. It is very wrong,” Gogoi said.
After that, all the Opposition members walked out of the House in protest against the speaker’s decision.
Later they staged a protest outside the House, in the Assembly premises.
Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader Debabrata Saikia said, “This very government in the previous assembly session said that it would allow motions of adjournment and discuss serious matters on occasions. But today despite the Opposition trying to discuss the price hike of petroleum products and essential items, the government rejected the proposal. This proves the government has no answer to give to the public.”