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Curtain falls on 8th Meghalaya Assembly

By STAFF CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG, Dec 17 - Curtains have fallen on the 8th Meghalaya Legislative Assembly with Speaker Abu Taher Mondal prorogueing the House sine die, but not before senior members, Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition speaking highly, with lot of emotions, about the present tenure.

In his farewell speech, one of the senior most Members of the House, DD Lapang spoke about the decorum of the House that has been of the highest order and complimented the Speaker for conducting the House in an impartial manner.

�I am proud about the decorum that was maintained in the House,� the veteran politician said on Thursday.

Lapang said that though he has announced not to contest the Assembly elections anymore and would �not be seen within the four walls of the House,� he would continue to serve the people outside the Assembly.

The other senior Member of the House and Deputy Chief Minister RC Laloo, who also announced his retirement, in his address thanked the Speaker for conducting the House in a gentlemanly manner. Laloo said that in his 35 years in politics he has learnt a lot from both the treasury and Opposition benches.

Chief Minister Mukul Sangma thanked the Speaker and termed the present term of the Assembly as �amazing.� Sangma also thanked the Opposition for raising a number of issues during the present term which would have otherwise skipped the mind of the Government.

�As all the Members step outside the House today, it�s now up to the people to give their mandate so that we may again step into the House, as elections are due next year,� the CM said.

Leader of the Opposition, Donkupar Roy in his address termed Mondal as �one of the best Speakers� that he has seen and congratulated him for being the �first Speaker from the minority community.�

Roy also said that although the term of the present Assembly has ended and many might not return to the House, however, the friendship and camaraderie should be maintained.

The Speaker in his address said he was initially skeptical about his role and was worried if the members would accept him as an unbiased person. Gradually, Mondal said, he enjoyed his role.

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