NC against speaker

SHILLONG, MAR 10: Agitated over insufficient time allotted to the opposition during the ongoing budget session of the assembly, the  opposition Meghalaya People’s Forum (MPF) moved a No-Confidence (NC) motion against the Meghalaya assembly Speaker AT Mondal on Tuesday.

The NC was moved by four legislators that includes NPP legislator James K Sangma, UDP legislator Jemino Mawthoh, HSPDP legislator Witting Mawsor and Independent legislator John Leslee Sangma.

“With reference to Article 179 (C) of the Constitution of India and Rule 135 of the Rules of Procedures and Conduct of Business in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, we the following members express our want of confidence in the Speaker of the House. We therefore intend to move a No-Confidence against the Speaker,” the letter of the four legislator said to the assembly secretary on Tuesday.

When NPP legislator James Sangma raised this issue after the question hour, Mondal said, “I have not received any letter so far.” He however assured the opposition that he would check and get back to them later.

Speaking to reporters after the session, Sangma said the main reasons for  moving the NC against the Speaker is the less amount of time allotted to them for budget session. “Now that the state is in such a big financial mess but we have just four days for private members. So we are not happy with that,” he said.

Sangma further many questioned lapsed today for want of time. “We have been saying repeatedly in so many sessions to kindly phase out the question in an organized manner. If you have 20 questions in a day, naturally many of them will lapse and would not come up for the answers,” he stated.

Sangma also mentioned that there were 16 motions this time and only two could be taken up today. “So the argument from the office is that the questions don’t come up and issues are not there and that members don’t put up questions and motions. But on the contrary to that so many members have put up so many issues which are important and pertinent to the given situation
in the state right now,” he said.

Sangma said that in the parliament the budget session goes for more than a month adding that the opposition can understand that there is voting on supplementary demands but argued that 13 days session is not enough.- By Our Reporter