Guwahati: The ongoing Budget Session in the Assam Assembly on Monday witnessed uproar with opposition MLAs demanding discussion in the House on the HSLC science question paper leak.
Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia issued an adjournment motion to discuss the paper leak but was denied by Speaker Biswajit Daimary.
“There was an allegation on March 5 also that the English paper of the Class 10 exam was leaked. But the education minister charged the media for the news. If precautions were taken then, a paper wouldn’t have leaked today,” Saikia said.
Reacting to Saikia’s statements, Minister Pegu said “SEBA cancelled the examination at midnight yesterday (Sunday). A police case has been filed and SEBA will also probe it on it’s own.
“Let the probe be completed first. A discussion before the probe will not be appropriate,” he added.
This led to noisy scenes with the CPI(M) MLA Manoranjan Talukdar and Independent member Akhil Gogoi questioning the speaker why the minister was allowed to answer before the notice was accepted.
“The education minister should resign after this question paper leak,” Gogoi demanded.
The speaker then sought to pacify the opposition and said he is not denying the importance of the topic.
He urged them to discuss it during zero hour in the coming days.
Meanwhile, several organisations and parties condemned the Assam government for its failure to hold exams properly.
The AASU, Chatra Mukti Sangram Samiti (CMSS) and AAP staged protests in Guwahati demanding the resignation of Assam Education Minister Ranoj Pegu.