GUWAHATI, Feb 9 - The Assembly today witnessed a strange spectacle when its session had to be adjourned for 15 minutes as none of the ministers were present in the House.
The event prompted Deputy Speaker Dilip Kumar Paul to warn the members not to allow such incidents to be repeated in future and to keep in mind the dignity of the House.
When the House assembled post-lunch, business could not be started due to lack of quorum, which requires the presence of at least 21 members out of the total 126 MLAs. The House bell kept on ringing for almost seven minutes before the quorum could be achieved.
When the Deputy Speaker, who was in the Chair, wanted to start the business with the scheduled discussion on Motion of Thanks to the Governor�s speech, the Opposition pointed out that none of the ministers were present in the House.
�This is unprecedented. This shows the lack of seriousness of the ministers. How can the House function when not even a single minister is present?� said Congress MLA Abdul Khaleque.
When the ruling party MLAs raised objection to Khaleque�s demand, the Congress legislator asked his BJP counterparts to seek advice from senior leaders PK Mahanta and Pabindra Deka about the rules. Congress MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi stated that the absence of all ministers from the House is a �shameful incident�.
�Assam Assembly has never witnessed such a shameful incident in its entire history,� Kurmi said. AIUDF member Aminul Islam also supported the Congress MLAs. Subsequently a noisy scene ensued in the House for some time.
With no minister was present even after 10 minutes, the Deputy Speaker finally adjourned the House for 15 minutes. After some time, Parliamentary Affairs Minister CM Patowary entered the House.
When the House reassembled after 15 minutes, Paul warned the members to ensure that such incidents are not repeated. �I request all to maintain the dignity of the House. There was no quorum for four-five minutes. Then there were no ministers. We should be careful so that such things do not happen again,� he said.