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| Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar speaks at the Assembly in Agartala on Monday. (PTI) |
Agartala, Sept. 24: The last session of the 8th Tripura Legislative Assembly ended today on a sour note with the entire Opposition staging a noisy walkout following the rejection of a privilege motion brought earlier against chief minister Manik Sarkar.
On Friday, the Assembly session commenced quietly and the scheduled question hour between 11am and 12pm passed off smoothly as questions on home department, finance and industry were answered by the chief minister, finance minister Badal Chowdhury and industry minister Jiten Chowdhury.
However, trouble started with the leader of the Opposition Ratanlal Nath asking Speaker Ramendra Debnath as to the fate of the privilege motion brought against the chief minister.
In response, the Speaker read out a report submitted by the privilege committee of the Assembly and said the privilege motion had been rejected on procedural grounds and on grounds of facts and circumstances.
Nath and other members of Congress and INPT accused the chief minister of breaking the promises made in the House earlier. Sarkar had earlier promised a CBI investigation into the death of Papai Saha who died in police firing in July last year and also the death of two tribal youths Rabi Debbarma and Liton Debbarma attacked by CPM cadres. However, he did not keep his promise.
“It is clear that the chief minister backed out of a commitment and quite obviously misled the House deliberately. How could the committee reject our motion without getting into the case?” Nath asked, supported by his colleagues.
This led to a lengthy exchange of heated words and abuses between the treasury bench and the Opposition.
However, things cooled down soon, as the Opposition left the House, boycotting proceedings for the rest of the day.
Later interacting with the media in his office, Nath accused the Left Front government of unprecedented corruption, misuse of power and nepotism.
“This government has promoted a peculiar culture of impunity, if you are their supporter or leader you can get away with anything. In the Industrial Training Institute, CPM’s employee leader Uttam Goswami molested a female colleague who filed a specific complaint with evidence, but no action has been taken against him. Similarly, a leader of their teachers’ front, Nanigopal Debnath, posted in Shishu Vihar Higher Secondary School, molested a female student of Class XI, but has been allowed to escape despite complaints filed by the girl. Naturally, the chief minister cannot be brought under the purview of privilege motion,” Nath said.
He, however, predicted that the Left Front would learn its lessons in the upcoming Assembly polls.
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