ITANAGAR, Dec 16 - Amid unprecedented security measure, 33 MLAs, including 20 dissident Congress, 11 BJP and two Independent legislators here this afternoon passed a resolution for removal of Nabam Rebia from the post of Speaker of the Arunachal Pradesh State Legislative Assembly.
The venue, Techi Takar Community Hall at G-Sector, Naharlagun, virtually turned into a fortress with men in uniform and scores of supporters of the lawmakers standing guard outside the hall as the Assembly took up the first and only item of business on the first day of the three-day House session.
Members from the Treasury and Opposition benches, excluding Deputy Speaker Tenzing Norbu Thongdok � who was mandated by Governor JP Rajkhowa to conduct the House session as the impeachment motion moved against Speaker Nabam Rebia on November 19 last, was pending � took part in the in-camera voting by putting their signatures in papers in the presence of the Deputy Speaker.
The Deputy Speaker, after hearing the version from the mover of the resolution, Leader of Opposition Tamiyo Taga, asked Rebia to speak against the motion, but found him absent.
The Deputy Speaker adjourned the House for the day after declaring that 33 of the 60-member House voted in favour of the resolution. The House will meet tomorrow at 10 am either at the Assembly premises or at the same hall, he added.
Earlier, initiating the day�s proceeding at 2 pm, the Deputy Speaker narrated the �chaotic� situation that unfolded this morning following locking of the Assembly Secretariat by a Magistrate on an �order� from the State administration, disallowing members� entry into the Assembly premises. Thongdok said that after waiting for over two hours outside the Assembly Secretariat �helplessly�, with a huge agitated mob outside the premises resorting to stone pelting, forcing security personnel to lob tear gas shells to disperse them, the members decided to contact the Raj Bhavan so that the Governor�s mandate could be honoured. And accordingly, the Governor gave the �go-ahead� for conducting the session at the Naharlagun G-Sector�s Techi Takar Community Hall, which is about a kilometre from the Assembly Secretariat, �to protect democracy and the Constitution�.
Earlier, while moving the resolution for the Speaker�s dismissal with all 13 signatories of the resolution (MLAs) standing up to show their support, former Speaker and Opposition leader Tamiyo Taga lashed out at Rebia for being allegedly biased against Opposition members even during normal sessions of the Assembly. He also alleged that Rebia has appointed a large number of staff at the Assembly Secretariat �in total violation of established rules, thereby lowering the sanctity of the Assembly�.
Later, talking to media-persons, Taga said that tomorrow, they (BJP members along with rebel Congress legislators) would seek a floor test and if Chief Minister Nabam Tuki fails to prove majority, then they would demand their leader Kalikho Pul be sworn in as the Chief Minister.
Our Special Correspondent from Delhi adds: The Congress party today came to the rescue of its beleaguered Chief Minister, Nabam Tuki.
An AICC delegation, led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, met and informed the President that it was clear that the BJP top leadership, in connivance with some dissident Congress MLAs, planned to destabilise the democratically-elected Congress Government in Arunachal Pradesh. This is obviously a pre-planned design involving the highest functionaries of the Central Government in this unprincipled enterprise, they alleged.
The delegation also lodged a complaint against the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh alleging that he has acted contrary to the spirit and scheme of the Constitution. It seems that the Governor, at the behest of the Central Government, enticed Congress MLAs, defect to the BJP in seeking to oust the democratically-elected Government of Arunachal Pradesh.
