- Speaker suspends Akhil Gogoi from House proceedings for today

Guwahati, 21 February (HS): As soon as the proceedings of the fourth day of the budget session of Assam Assembly starts on Friday, Speaker Biswajit Daimary had to adjourn the House proceedings twice for 10 minutes and 5 minutes amid continuous uproar in the House. The Speaker had rejected the Congress member's demand to cancel the adjournment motion. After that, Congress members reached near the Speaker's podium and started raising slogans.

As soon as the proceedings began on Friday, Congress party member and Leader of Opposition Devbrata Saikia started demanding adjournment of the House and hold a one-hour discussion on the attack on Congress MP Rakibul Hussain in Rupahihat of Nagon district on Thursday. On this, Assembly Speaker Daimari rejected the opposition's adjournment motion, citing the absence of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandramohan Patwari and Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma and the time for discussion on economic matters in the proceedings of the House. After this, the opposition members got agitated and came near the Speaker's podium and started sloganeering. When the opposition members and the ruling party were not ready to agree in any way, the Speaker was forced to adjourn the proceedings of the House for 10 minutes. When the proceedings of the House started again after a gap of 10 minutes, once again the ruling party and the opposition reached in front of the Speaker's podium and started sloganeering. Due to which the Speaker adjourned the proceedings of the House for 5 minutes.

Water Resources Minister Pijush Hazarika, while presenting the government's side in the House, said that investigation is going on in this regard. Also, four people have been arrested. Further investigation is going on. At the same time, Samaguri BJP MLA Diplu Ranjan Sharma said that this matter should be investigated. He also said that the attack could possibly be a part of a conspiracy to disrupt the organization of Advantage Assam 2.0. On hearing Sharma's statement, the opposition started a huge uproar. Meanwhile, the ruling party MLAs also reached in front of the Speaker's podium and started sloganeering.

When the proceedings of the House resumed for the third time, Leader of Opposition Devbrata Saikia pacified his members and said that the opposition is not satisfied with the statement given by Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma regarding the incident yesterday. Therefore, the Parliamentary Minister should answer in this regard. He said that we are well aware that the time of the House is very precious, but we cannot ignore such an incident. The government should answer on how to ensure security.

Parliamentary Minister Chandra Mohan Patwari said that yesterday, when the Chief Minister placed a motion of thanks on the Governor's address, the opposition raised the issue of attack on the MP. He expressed grief over the incident. He said that a full investigation will be done in this regard and arrangements will be made. The investigation is going on. So far four accused have been arrested. Patwari said that the incident is being investigated by the senior officials of the Home Department. Leader of Opposition Sakia said that the investigation committee has not been formed yet. He also said that we have no faith in the investigation of the local police station in-charge and the Superintendent of Police regarding the incident. The incident happened due to the negligence of government officials. Sakia said that the inefficiency of the police has been exposed in this case. He said that the incident should be investigated as soon as possible and the report should be presented in the next meeting of the House.

Parliamentary affairs Minister Patwari said that if negligence of the government official is found, action will be taken against him. He said that we understand the pain of the opposition very well. We condemn this incident. He also said that after receiving the investigation report, it will be discussed in the House.

Meanwhile, the only MLA of the Riser Dal, Akhil Gogoi was seen continuously making noise and demanding a discussion. The Speaker repeatedly instructed Akhil to calm down. The Speaker told Akhil to keep quiet because he has not given any notice. When he did not calm down, the Speaker suspended Akhil from the proceedings of the House for the day. Akhil was taken out of the House by the Marshall. After this, the discussion in the House began in a peaceful atmosphere.

During today's incident, the opposition party AIUDF did not give any statement. While the Congress MLAs were creating a ruckus inside the House, the AIUDF MLAs remained peacefully seated on their seats.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Sriprakash