HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, March 13: The state Assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary on Monday suspended Opposition MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed for protesting against the former’s decision disallowing him from asking a second supplementary question on the ongoing eviction drive by the Assam government which has displaced thousands of people so far.
Ahmed asked a question related to eviction of 45 families at No 12 seat of Satrakanara in Barpeta district and alleged the state government had misled the House on the issue.
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While revenue and disaster management minister Jogen Mohan said the government cleared only 400 bighas (over 132 acres) of land and no one outside that area was evicted, Ahmed alleged that 17 families outside the marked area were displaced by the administration during the exercise on December 26.
“Whose fault was it for carrying out eviction outside the 400 bighas? This is a serious matter and the House was misled. I request the Speaker to form a House Committee to probe this matter,” Ahmed said.
Daimary requested the opposition MLA not to make such claims without any evidence, but refrained from expunging the statements.
When the Speaker moved to the next question after Mohan’s reply, Ahmed said he should get a second supplementary question “as per the rule”.
However, Daimary did not accept and asked the next MLA to ask his query.
On this, Ahmed rushed to the Well of the House and continued to demand a second supplementary question.
AIUDF MLA Rafiqul Islam supported Ahmed and told the Speaker that an MLA gets two supplementary queries as per the decision of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the House.
“I have taken a decision as per Rule 49. Please don’t disturb the House and don’t accuse me like this,” Daimary said.
When the Congress MLA continued to raise his points from the Well of the House, the Speaker suspended him for the day.
The Marshals then escorted Ahmed out of the House.
Later during the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the Governor’s address, AIUDF MLA Aminul Islam raised the issue of another eviction drive at Burachapori Wildlife Sanctuary and alleged that many families outside the forest were also ousted from their homes.
“The Sonitpur district administration brutally attacked the families as if they were foreigners. When they were staying at relief camps after the eviction, Sonitpur district administration came inside Nagaon district and broke their camps too,” he alleged.
Some of the affected people, including women were injured in the eviction of relief camps with tin sheets falling on them while they were sleeping inside.
CPI (M)’s Manoranjan Talukdar said that most of the people, who faced eviction, were flood victims and their lands were washed away in erosion by Brahmaputra and other rivers.
Congress MLA Nurul Huda claimed, “These people were living in the area since the 1960s when it was not declared a sanctuary. Their land at other places were washed away in erosion.” (With inputs from PTI)
