Parl panel meet on prison reforms: Cong MPs seek action against Assam chief secy for misleading info

Congress MPs have demanded bringing a privilege motion against Assam chief secretary Paban Kumar Borthakur for misleading the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs over the number of detention camps in the state.

New Delhi:AccusingAssam chief secretary Paban Kumar Borthakur of misleading the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs over the number of detention camps in the state, Congress MPs on Wednesday demanded a privilege motion against the top government official.

The Parliamentary committee meeting on Prison-Condition, Reforms, and Infrastructure held in the Parliament House also witnessed a heated exchange of words between BJP and Congress MPs. The panel was discussing the condition of prisons, reformative steps, and infrastructure facilities available in jails of Assam, Odisha and West Bengal.

The meeting which began at around 3 pm turned into a platform of heated exchange between BJP and Congress MPs when some Congress MPs sought to know the number of detention camps in the state. As Chief Secretary Borthakur informed the panel that there is one detention camp in the state with 200 inmates, a BJP MP incidentally countered the official’s statement saying that as per records found on the Internet, there are six detention camps in the state.

With this, the Congress MPs claimed that it was a fit case to bring a privilege motion against the chief secretary for misleading the panel. “The meeting that took place for two hours witnessed a war of words between Congress and BJP MPs,” said a member of the panel to ETV Bharat.

Interestingly, the chairman of the panel Brijlal, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from BJP said that the panel will go by the statement given by the official and “not by the records found in the internet.” The committee also discussed the food quality issue in the detention camps.

Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury demanded that the food quality at the detention camp should be checked on a daily basis. The government official said that the food quality of the detention camps is checked once a month. Just before the end of the meeting, Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury walked out of the committee meeting.

The panel hailed the prison reforms and infrastructure development being taken by the Odisha government. West Bengal chief secretary, however, skipped the meeting. People who were declared foreigners by the Foreigner Tribunals in Assam are kept in detention camps.