Governor wants assembly reconvened by February 6

IMPHAL, January 22: The state Governor, Ved Marwah, apparently exasperated by the constant dithering over the issue of reconvening of the adjourned winter session of the State Assembly, today directed that the adjourned session should be reconvened latest by February 6 next to take up the pending no-confidence motion against the W Nipamacha Singh government. In near-identical letters to the chief minister and the Speaker, the Governor also expressed his unhappiness over the continued stalling of the Assembly session and their disregard of his previous message to them in this regard. The Raj Bhavan also took the unusual step of releasing a statement to the media in this connection. The Governor, in a message to the Legislative Assembly, stated: 'I have noted with regret that no action has been taken on my message dated January 12, 2001. There is no justification to delay the reconvening of the Assembly session for such a long time. In exercise of the powers conferred under Article 175 (2) of the Constitution of India, I, Ved Prakash Marwah, Governor of Manipur, send the following message to the Legislative Assembly of the state: "The adjourned Third Session of the 7th Manipur Legislative Assembly should be reconvened immediately, in any case not later than Tuesday, the 6th February, 2001, to take up for consideration the 'No-Confidence Motion' against the Council of Ministers, already admitted." In separate letters to the chief minister and the Speaker, the Governor also regretted the fact that no action has so far been taken on his earlier letter dated December 20, 2000 to the chief minister and the Speaker. The Governor has further asked the chief minister to immediately depute a team of officers, headed by the chief secretary, including the concerned chief engineer, PWD, to contact the secretary of the Assembly and get the needful done for repairing the damage caused to the Assembly hall during the December 1 violence inside the hall. The Governor made it clear that the Assembly hall should be made functional within ten days time.