Imphal: Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president, K Meghachandra slammed the BJP-led Government in Manipur for failing to convene a state legislative assembly session on time. The Congress is the main opposition party in the 60-member Manipur assembly.
It may be mentioned that after the Governor of Manipur did not respond to the state cabinet’s recommendation to summon the assembly session on August 21 (Monday), the Government is planning to hold an emergency session of the Manipur Legislative Assembly before September 2.
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The Speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly has initiated the process of summoning the emergency session, as Chief Minister N Biren Singh had earlier stated that the session of the State Assembly would be convened before September 2.
K Meghachandra, a sitting MLA elected from Wangkhem Assembly constituency, said at a press conference at Congress Bhavan, Imphal on Monday, “According to the Rules and Conduct and Business of the state Assembly, we MLAs should have received a notice for the session by August 16. However, none of us received such a notice, which means that the government is not convening the state assembly session.”
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Meghachandra said that the BJP-led government is “murdering democracy” and that an emergency session can be summoned without issuing a 15-day notice. However, an emergency session cannot replace a normal session.
A total of 20 tribal MLAs – 10 Kuki MLAs and 10 Naga legislators cutting across party affiliations – have expressed their inability to attend the Assembly session due to the ongoing violence in the state and the Indo-Naga peace talks.
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The session must be called within six months of the last assembly session. The last state assembly was adjourned sine die on the first week of March and reconvened in June.
A notification must be issued 15 days before the start of a normal assembly session.
Fifteen days have already passed since the normal session was supposed to be convened, so the state must summon an emergency assembly session to avoid a constitutional crisis.