Imphal, July 18 (EMN): The budget session of the Manipur assembly will be held from July 20 to August 4, according to assembly sources. The 16 days budget session of the state assembly will be having a total of 14 sittings. A business advisory committee meeting of the assembly was also held in this regard on Tuesday.
Informing that the session was earlier fixed from July 20 to August 16, Congress MLA and party’s spokesperson Kh Joykishan claimed that the shortening of the assembly is first of its kind in the history. The opposition leader and former chief minister O Ibobi Singh who attended the day’s business advisory committee meeting, was not happy over the move, Thangmeiband constituency MLA said. The opposition Congress legislators are unhappy over the shortening of the second session of 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly. However he informed media that congress party will raise the issue of framework agreement (between centre and NSCN-IM), indigenous people’s rights and flood situation in the state in the upcoming assembly session.
He also appealed to the ruling front not to repeat such steps of shortening the assembly session in future. Sharing a similar sentiment, former social welfare minister and sitting Congress MLA N Loken of Nambol constituency also claimed that he had submitted four questions for his constituencies to discuss in the assembly but only two of the were accepted. Loken who had been participating in the assembly sessions since he became MLA in 1995 also expressed that the budget session of a state is one of the important session of the people.
Former speaker of the assembly and sitting MLA Th Lokeshwar and former agriculture minister and sitting MLA Md Abdul Nasir also echoed the similar feelings. Being the majority, the government have already cut short the timings of the business of the house, the congress legislators felt.
