Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: The Assam Assembly witnessed a messy situation involving a litany of issues like the land protection bill, restrictions over selling of lands between two communities, smart meters, the recent incident of assault on an Assamese girl in Sivasagar, etc., leading to two walkouts by the Congress and the AIUDF members.
The opposition raised objections separately during the introduction of the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation (Amendment) Bill and the Assam (Temporarily Settled Areas) Tenancy (Amendment) Bill. The Congress and the AUIDF MLAs said that these two bills were against the Constitution of India, which gives everybody the right to sell and purchase land. The AIUDF members rushed to the speaker's well while opposing the introduction of the bill.
The speaker then told the opposition to raise their objections during the debates while passing these two bills. The agitated AIUDF and Congress members then staged a walkout.
Earlier, Akhil Gogoi, Aminul Haque of the AIUDF, and Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia moved three house adjournment motions on three different issues. While Akhil Gogoi sought a discussion in the house on the recent Sivasagar incident, Debabrata Saikia sought a discussion in the house on the issue of smart meters that have sent a wave of displeasure among power consumers, and Aminul Haque wanted a discussion on the restrictions being imposed on land deals between different communities.
Opposing the adjournment motions, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pijush Hazarika said, "The issue of Sivasagar has already been solved. Raising the issue afresh won't serve any good purpose."
On the discussion sought on smart meters, Hazarika said, "The rumours doing rounds on smart meters were not factually correct. There is nothing defective in smart meters. If the MLAs agree, we will fix both smart and manual meters in the residences of all MLAs. In one month, you will see the differences in the results."
On the restrictions regarding land sales between different communities, Hazarika further said, "You want separate acts like Sharia and oppose the UCC (Uniform Civil Code). We also want to protect our land through an act like yours. Why should there be objections from your side?"
Not being satisfied with the statements of the minister on these issues, the MLAs of the Congress and the AIUDF staged a noisy walkout.
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