Nagaland's one-day monsoon session on Thursday; oppn NPF decides to boycott

The house will convene at 9:30 am. However, the opposition NPF having a total of 25 MLAs in the 60-member Nagaland house, on Wednesday informed the Speaker about its decision to boycott the session for turning down its proposal for a longer session to deliberate on the pertinent matters of Naga political issue, SARFAESI Act, 2002 and the current COVID-19 pandemic scenario in the state.

The one-day monsoon session of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) has been convened on Thursday amid surging Covid-19 cases in the state, but the only Opposition party in the House- Naga Peoples Front (NPF)- on Wednesday decided to boycott the session. The house which could not meet on earlier scheduled date on July 30 after at least 6 assembly staff were found positive for virus a day before, has been convened on August 13.

Speaker Sharingain Longkumer said during the day that the session is being held in order to fulfill the constitutional requirement of holding the sitting within a six months period. The house will convene at 9:30 am.

However, the opposition NPF having a total of 25 MLAs in the 60-member Nagaland house, on Wednesday informed the Speaker about its decision to boycott the session for turning down its proposal for a longer session to deliberate on the pertinent matters of Naga political issue, SARFAESI Act, 2002 and the current COVID-19 pandemic scenario in the state.. NPF Legislature Party spokesperson, Imkong L Imchen, MLA, gave information about the decision not to attend the session in a letter addressed to the speaker.

On being contacted, Nagaland Legislative Assembly Commissioner and Secretary Antony confirmed to PTI that the assembly has received the boycott letter from NPF. Asked whether the session would be held as scheduled, Antony said "the session will go ahead because the quorum for the sitting of the assembly is only 10 members".

"The assembly secretariat is aware of the NPF decision to boycott the session, which is a political issue and the secretariate do not have anything to do with that but to only ensure that the quorum is there," the Commissioner & Secretary asserted. Earlier, Antony had said that altogether 19 MLAs, including those from the ruling coalition as well as the opposition, have applied for leave expressing their inability to attend the session due to varied reasons.

The northeastern state has been witnessing a spike in Covid cases with total positive patients rising to 3118 Wednesday, while the death toll stands at 8. A total of 1113 people have recovered from the disease so far.

Justifying the decision to curtail the session to one day, the speaker told PTI, "Earlier too it was fixed for a day and now also it will be a day-long session only." "Considering pandemic and the safety of all those attending the meeting, holding one day session is the best option", Longkumer said. He said meticulous arrangements have been put in place for the conduct of the session by maintaining standard operating procedure (SOP) for COVID-19.

The effective strength of the Nagaland assembly is 58, with the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) having 20 MLAs and its ally BJP 12. The ruling coalition also has the support of an Independent.

Opposition NPF has 25 MLAs. Two members- one each from the ruling coalition and the opposition- died last year.

As per directives of the speaker, all legislators, administrative heads of department and their supporting staff, officials and employees of the state assembly have undergone COVID-19 re-test, Antony said. He said only those with negative test results would be attending the deferred session.

Among others, the business for the day include obituary reference, question hour, introduction and passing of government bill The Nagaland Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill 2020, which will be moved by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio. Imchen said, "It is most unfortunate that our proposal for holding house session for three days went unattended." He said that the opposition MLAs had filed 29 questions for reply from the government during the session but only 12 questions were accepted by the assembly secretariat.

"Further, the time duration allotted to the opposition for discussion on matters related to COVID-19 is a mere 35 minutes which by all standard is insufficient, he said. He told the speaker that the dignity of the state assembly and its democratic principles have been repeatedly abused on the pretext of implementing COVID-19 measures.

"In order to protect democratic practices and to maintain the sanctity of the house, the opposition party will boycott the one-day session, which has been convened for mere fulfillment of constitutional obligation," Imchen said in the letter.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)