Protests over Minister's FB post: Tripura Assembly Debates on Kokborok, Education, and Flood
In the backdrop of the recent catastrophic floods in the State, the three-day monsoon session of the Tripura assembly started on Wednesday which initially witnessed chaos and a brief walk out by the Congress MLAs followed by intense discussions on the flood situation.
Speaker Biswasbandhu Sen announced Leader of the House, CM Dr Manik Saha's absence in the Assembly today as Dr Saha flew to Delhi for an urgent engagement.
This sparked sharp reactions from the The Opposition parties -CPIM and Congress. "In view of the damage and destruction caused due to flood, a discussion on the flood issue in absence of the CM would be a meaningless exercise", opposition MLAs opined.
Notably, Dr Saha left for New Delhi on Tuesday to attend to attend signing of a Memorandum of Settlement among the Central, State Governments and representatives of the militant groups -NLFT and ATTF on Wednesday.
In absence of the Leader of the House, Ministers - Ratan Lal Nath, Pranajit Sarkar, Sushanta Chowdhury, Tinku Roy and Santana Chakma were entrusted to deal with questions pertaining to the departments held by the CM.
Today, in a quick question - answer session, MLAs of both the treasury bench and opposition raised issues related to Kokborok language and school education. Opposition MLAs wanted to know about the script used in writing Kokborok and the Government's stance on the 8th Schedule.
Replying to the queries, in-charge Minister Tinku Roy said the Script committee formed to suggest script for Kokborok is yet to submit its report. Roy also said the issue of the 8th Schedule is pending with the Central Government.
Several questions relating to upgrading High Schools to Higher Secondary Schools were raised. Also Congress MLA Gopal Roy also wanted to know about the number of the TET qualified unemployed persons.
In reply, total 366 candidates cleared the TET in 2022. Among these, 197 cleared T-TET Paper I and 169 passed T-TET Paper II. He also said, the recruitment process for these successful candidates is yet to be started due to a legal issue. Now, the process will started after getting necessary permission from the Finance Department.
Meantime, Congress MLA Birajit Sinha pointed out a recent social media post by Minister Sudhangshu Das. Claiming that the post went against the spirit of secularism, Sinha and other opposition leaders demanded an apology from Das.
Minister Sushanta Chowdhury informed the House that Das deleted the post soon after posting it which indicates that he repented, otherwise he would stick to it.
As the opposition parties kept on pressuring Das to seek an apology, ruling party MLAs led by started strongly rallying behind Das. During the arguments, leaders referred to the GITA and used quotes of Swami Vivekanand and Mahatma Gandhi to justify that Das had not violated principles of the Constitution.
Amidst arguments, Opposition MLAs came down to well demanding Das' apology. Soon, the MLAs - Birajit Sinha, Gopal Roy and Sudip Roy Barman walked out as a mark of protest.
The second half of session witnessed intese discussion on flood situation. Leader of the Opposition Jitendra Choudhary opened the discussion followed by other MLAs.
Besides, two bills related to Tripura Housing Board and Tripura State GST were introduced. Finance Minister also presented Demands for Excess Grants for 2022-23 FY.
(Tripura, Tripura News)
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