Precedent set in Assam Assembly, Speaker decides fate on resolution through ballots

GUWAHATI: The Assam Assembly set a precedent today when the Speaker was bound to use ballot papers for voting while taking the decision related to a private members’ resolution on the irrigation system. 

Independent MLA Akhil Gogoi brought a resolution to the State Assembly demanding a round-the-year supply of irrigation water on the arable lands in the state so as to allow farmers to go for multiple cropping.

In a voice vote, Speaker Biswajit Daimary asked those in favour of the resolution to say ‘aye’ and ‘no’ by those opposed to it. Immediately after the voice vote, when the Speaker announced that the House had defeated the resolution, the opposition members said with conviction that the sound of ‘no’ was louder than that of the ‘aye’, and hence the fate of the resolution should be decided through ballot voting. And the speaker allowed the opposition’s stand.

And that shook the confidence of the Treasury Bench as many of their ministers and MLAs were absent. Soon, the ruling party MLAs started to call the absent MLAs, besides counting their number present in the House.

The Speaker then distributed ballot papers (paper sheets) to the members and asked those in favour of the resolution to ‘tick’ it and those against it to ‘cross’ it out.

After a nail-biting spell, the Speaker announced that the number of votes in favour of the resolution was ‘30’ and the number of votes against the resolution was ‘39’, and hence the House rejected the resolution.

Earlier, Irrigation Minister Ashok Singhal informed the House that the irrigation facilities in the state cover only 14 percent of the total area of arable lands, and around 1,585 irrigation schemes have been lying defunct for a long time. “We have started repairing the defunct schemes. One of the reasons why irrigation schemes are defunct is the frequent change of courses in the rivers. To ensure round-the-year supply of irrigation water to the fields, we started many new schemes, besides studying the possibilities of the creation of irrigation facilities through river networking. “Apart from this, the higher-ups in the departments of agriculture and irrigation hold joint meetings frequently to work in tandem,” he said.

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