Guwahati: Opposition Congress, CPI(M) and the lone Independent MLA on Tuesday staged a walkout in Assam Assembly over refusal to discuss an adjournment motion over Mizoram allegedly occupying a government school in Cachar district. Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia of Congress brought the Adjournment Motion to discuss the matter, which drew support from CPI(M) and Independent MLA Akhil Gogoi, but Speaker Biswajit Daimary refused a discussion by adjourning the day's businesses.
"It is an Assam government school, which was destroyed in a bombing by miscreants from Mizoram in 2020. Now, they have opened a Mizo school in the same building. How could this happen when neutral central forces were guarding it?" Saikia asked. The neighbouring state has not maintained status quo in the Dholai area of Cachar district despite ministerial level talks over border disputes going on and the CMs of both states giving peace statements, he alleged.
"We want to discuss this case. We want our land and we cannot surrender this way. We bring acts, but how will we implement those if we do not have our land? It is a definite matter of urgency," the Congress MLA stressed. Rejecting the request, Daimary said he has examined the Adjournment notice and accepted that it is an important topic.
"We can discuss this through other devices like Zero Hour or Cut Motion. For that, adjourning all work of the day is not required," he added. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pijush Hazarika too supported the Speaker and appealed to the opposition members to discuss the topic in some other time. On this, the Congress, CPI(M) and Independent MLA started shouting with their demand and went to the Well of the House.
They also showed placards and some paper cuttings on the alleged encroachment of the Assam school. With the Speaker deciding to move ahead to the next item of the day's schedule, the opposition members staged a walkout after being in the Well of the House for about 10 minutes. (PTI)
