Speaker in eye of storm: 3 Cong members suspended from House

GUWAHATI, February 9: The Assam Assembly today witnessed noisy scenes followed by suspension of three Congress legislators and walk-out by other members of the Congress over the issue of the writ petition filed by MLA Atul Bora against the Speaker Ganesh Kutum. As soon as the House assembled for the day, the Deputy Leader of the Congress Legislature Party Ardhendu Kumar Dey referred to the newspaper reports regarding the writ petition and said that such incidents lowered the dignity of the House. Dilip Kumar Saikia (AGP) asked the Speaker to clarify whether an MLA is authorised to file a writ petition against the Speaker. He also said that the matter was related to the renovation of the building of the Assembly and the decision to renovate the building was taken in an all-party meet. Bharat Chandra Narah (Cong), said that as the High Court did not reject the petition, there must be some prima-facie evidence against the Speaker. He demanded that under the circumstances, the Speaker should allow the Deputy Speaker to run the House. The Speaker, Ganesh Kutum said that he only come to know about the petition from newspaper reports and till date he did not receive any notice from the High Court. He said that he could not allow the members to criticise the conduct of the Chair unless the matter was brought by a proper motion. He also said that the matter was sub judice. Not satisfied with the Speaker's reply, the Congress legislators rushed to the well of the House, which resulted in a heated altercation between the Speaker and Congress members. At one point of time, Kutum accused the Congress members of politicising the issue, while, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Hitendra Nath Goswami expressed the view that the Congress legislators should not be allowed to obstruct the proceedings of the House. When repeated pleas by the Speaker failed to persuade the Congress members to return to their seats, the Speaker suspended three Congress members- Ardhendu Kumar Dey, Bharat Narah and Atowa Munda for the day and they were evicted from the House by the marshals. The other Congress legislators then staged a walk-out from the House. APSC affairs: Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta today alleged that the Congress party became the 'symbol of corruption' in India and none of the Congress legislators could raise the issue of alleged corruption by the former chairman of the Assam Public Service Commission T P Das. Replying to a call attention motion by Dilip Kumar Saikia (AGP) in the State Assembly today, Mahanta assured that the Government would try its best to appoint a person with integrity as the chairman of the APSC. Mahanta said that the State Government was concerned about the allegations of corruption against the former chairman of the APSC as such allegations lowered the image of the Commission. He said that the Government has entrusted the special vigilance cell with the job of conducting a probe into the allegations. However, he said that the Government was finding it difficult to take action against T P Das under the provisions of the Anti-Corruption Act as no one filed a specific complaint against him. Earlier raising the matter, Dilip Kumar Saikia said that corruption in the APSC lowered the image of the Commission. The situation became such that fixed rates were charged from the candidates for different posts, he alleged. Hemen Das (CPM) demanded a thorough probe into the functioning of the APSC. He said that even the results of the examinations were manipulated and demanded that politicians should not be appointed as APSC members. He also expressed apprehension that the whole administration would collapse due to corruption in the APSC.