Guwahati | Raijor Dal MLA Akhil Gogoi was suspended from the Assam Assembly for the remainder of the day on Thursday after he climbed atop his desk while protesting the Speaker's rejection of his adjournment motion seeking a discussion on the flood situation in the state.
After the Question Hour, Gogoi raised the issue and sought two minutes from Speaker Ranjeet Kumar Dass to allow him to speak on the scale of devastation caused by floods in Upper Assam, particularly in Sivasagar, Charaideo and Jorhat districts.
"The three districts have turned into rubble; everything has been destroyed. I urge the Assam Assembly to ask the state government to request the Centre to declare it a natural calamity," the MLA said.
He claimed that residents of the region had not witnessed such devastation in their lifetime and stressed that the House should set aside all other business to hold a detailed discussion on the issue.
The Speaker rejected the adjournment motion and said that a similar one was brought in by Congress on Wednesday, which was also rejected.
"We are discussing the budget and cut motions are going on. These cannot be cancelled. I request you to bring the topic through another device for a discussion in the House," he told Gogoi.
On this, the opposition MLA started shouting and begged Dass to allow him to speak for two minutes.
"Please do not betray me and my chair. You requested to speak for two minutes, and I gave you two minutes and 44 seconds. Now, do not drag it," the Speaker said.
When Dass proceeded with the next item of business, Gogoi stood on his chair and continued raising slogans. As the Speaker ignored his protest, the MLA climbed onto his desk and continued shouting.
The Speaker immediately suspended the Raijor Dal president and asked the Marshals to take him out of the House. The Marshals then lifted Gogoi from the desk and took him outside the House.
The flood situation in Assam remained critical, with 41 people killed so far and over 6.50 lakh reeling under the deluge across 11 districts.
The issue of the devastating floods rocked the assembly on Wednesday with the Congress bringing in an Adjournment Motion, to which the government said that the scale of the natural calamity caught the administrative machinery off guard as those areas had not witnessed such a deluge in over 60 years.
The Congress sought to discuss the flood situation after the Question Hour, but it was rejected by Dass.
Deputy leader of the Congress Legislature Party Joy Prakash Das sought to know the relief operations being carried out by the government and asked for suspension of the ongoing Budget Session for two days for an assembly committee to visit the affected areas to oversee the rescue and relief activities.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pijush Hazarika said the government is doing its best to ensure relief and rescue operations.
"The administration was caught off guard as the worst affected areas in the eastern part of the state had not witnessed such a deluge in over six decades," he added.
