Opposition Congress on Monday staged a walkout during the Budget Session of Assam Assembly for not allowing a party legislator to raise a point of order concerning finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s alleged involvement in multi-crore Saradha Chit fund scam.
As the House assembled for the day and speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami got up to address the members, MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi stood up to raise the point of order which was outrightly rejected by the speaker.
As speaker Goswami did not allow the point of order, all the Congress members staged a walkout.
“We wanted to raise the issue of minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s involvement in chit fund scam and seek a clarification from the government but the speaker did not allow us,” Mariani legislator Kurmi later told reporters outside the House.
“We wanted to demand arrest of minister Sarma but the speaker didn’t allow us to speak in the House. So we staged a walkout,” Kurmi added.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has started a dharna after a CBI team tried to enter the residence of Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar to interrogate him in the Saradha ponzi scam, on Sunday alleged that minister Sarma had been involved in the Saradha scam.
“He (Himanta) was investigated in the case before he joined the BJP but now he has gone scot-free,” said Banerjee, adding that the Modi-Shah combine had politicised the Saradha case just before the 2019 polls.