Congress flays Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over remarks on MLAs

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The APCC (Assam Pradesh Congress Committee) has come down heavily on Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his recent remarks on the roles of legislators in the State.

Addressing the media in Rajiv Bhawan here on Friday, APCC president Ripun Bora said, "On July 6, Dr Sarma in a public meeting in Sorbhog remarked that the only role of the MLAs is to make laws in the Assembly, that they have no role in developmental work in their constituencies and responsibility of any development work in their constituencies is rested upon the Ministers and that no bureaucrat or officer is bound to listen to an MLA's directive.

"Dr Sarma's remarks are not only abusive to the elected representatives of Legislative Assemblies but also insult our 'revered Constitution of India'.

"That a Political Science Degree holder and a PhD scholar like Dr Sarma could utter such words of not having adequate knowledge about the 'Constitution of India' is doubly shameful.

"The Constitution clearly mentions not only the Legislative powers of MLAs but also their Executive and Financial powers. Thus, Sarma's attempts to forcefully undermine the function and powers of MLAs only express his fascist mentality."

The Congress leader added, "When Dr Sarma was Planning & Development Minister in the late Tarun Gogoi-led Congress Government, he had himself directed the MLAs to give schemes for development and utilisation of MLALAD funds. Further the MLALAD fund was increased from Rs 5 Lakhs to Rs 1 crore during his term and he also engaged the MLAs in development work in their respective constituencies. In order to monitor the various development works in the constituencies right from Panchayat, Block-level Vigilance and Monitoring Committees were formed with the MLA as the Chairman and it is still continuing. Similarly the Central Government has also formed DISHA (a District Development Coordination & Monitoring Committee) to deliberate on and monitor the developments with the MLAs as members. Even after all such responsibilities of MLAs when a Chief Minister denies and remarks that the MLAs have no role in development works and officers are not bound to listen to them, he can be called a person of a despotic mentality."

POWER SUBSIDY ROW: Assam State CLP (Congress Legislature Party) leader Debabrata Saikia told the media in the same press conference, "We came across an advertisement of the Assam government in the daily newspapers of the State on July 9 (today). In the advertisement, the State government has claimed that an overall amount of Rs 5,989.28 crore has been given as subsidy to the three power companies operating in the State during the last three financial years. The advertisement further states that against this backdrop, the various departments of the Assam government do not need to pay the power bills.

"But, the fact remains that this claim of the State government does not hold water. This advertisement is only an attempt to confuse the public because nowhere in the 'Assam Electricity Duty Rules-1964' is mentioned that if subsidies are given by the government then the departments do not have to clear their power bills. Even the AERC (Assam Electricity Regulatory Commission) – which determines the power tariff for various categories of consumers in the State) – has never mentioned any such provision as claimed by the State government."

Saikia pointed out, "Mentionably, the government gives subsidy only to procure power."

PRICE HIKE OF ESSENTIAL ITEMS: CLP leader Debabrata Saikia said, "The State government has not taken any steps to check unnatural rise in the prices of essential commodities during the last one year (from June 2020 to June 2021). The prices of various types of rice spiraled by 4%; pulses (dal) by 15%; mustard oil by 42%; soya bean oil by 52%; and tea by 24%.

Even the prices of fuel items have touched the century mark across the State. The government must bring fuel under GST.

HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEME: To cover especially the economically vulnerable section of the society, there is a need for the State government to come up with a cashless insurance scheme.

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