AGARTALA, Feb 24 (IANS): Slogan-shouting opposition members forced Tripura Governor D.Y. Patil to leave the assembly Friday without completing his customary address on the opening day of the four-week long budget session of the legislature.
"Please allow me to read out my speech. You are always welcome to raise your issues," the governor urged the unrelenting opposition legislators.
The ruckus started as soon as the house assembled and the Governor started reading his written speech, which is normally prepared by the government. The opposition Congress members led by their leader Ratan Lal Nath displaying placards raised several issues, including the removal of state minister Sahid Chowdhury.
"Chowdhury's inclusion in the council of ministry is a mater of internal security concern as he was involved with a Bangladeshi arms dealer," Nath told the Governor.
The Governor left the Assembly after reading 2-3 pages of his 24-page written address as the noisy scenes continued by the Opposition members.
"With the induction of Chowdhury, national security would be threatened as he has relations with a notorious foreign element," an agitated Nath said.
Four years after Chowdhury resigned over his alleged links with Bangladeshi arms dealer Mamun Mian, the 54-year-old Communist Party of India-Marxist legislator was re-inducted as minister in Tripura's Left Front ministry on Feb 12.
While Chowdhury's alleged links with Mamun Mian have not yet been established, the chief judicial magistrate here had sentenced the Bangladeshi to 10 years rigorous imprisonment in 2010 for forging his identity documents and fined him Rs.100,000.
He will be jailed for another one and a half years if he does not pay up the fine.
The main Opposition Congress has been demanding a high-level probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the reported links between Chowdhury and Mamun Mian, who has been in an Indian jail for four years after he was arrested in 2008.
