Assembly Rules committee discusses whether to allow question on subjects of three years or more old

The Tripura Assembly is contemplating to enact a rule to disallow raising any question on a particular subject, which is "three-year or more old" by any member of the House, Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen said. To push the plan, the Rules Committee of the Assembly headed by the Speaker held a meeting on Friday and discussed the issue at length.

"We run the Assembly guided by Rules and Procedures. Under Rule 41, one can submit or ask questions on a particular issue, which is even three, four or five years old. Although it was a practice during the Left Front regime not to allow questions on any subject, which is three or more years old, it was not made a rule then. Now, we want to bring a bill enacting a rule to not allow any question on a subject which is three years or more old in Assembly", Sen told reporters after the meeting.

"We discussed the matter with representatives of political parties and they wanted to see the practice of the Parliament. We know Parliament does not allow questions on a particular subject, which is three years or more old. We will bring details on the issue from the Lok Sabha secretariat. If our plan is matched with Parliament's, the government will table a bill seeking not to allow questions on issues which are three years or more old", he said.


Leader of the Opposition in Tripura Assembly, Animesh Debbarma of Tipra Motha said "Two of our MLAs attended the meeting. They briefed us about the meeting. We strongly oppose the initiative of the Speaker because it will snatch away the right to ask questions on important issues on the grounds of three years or more old.

CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Choudhury on Sunday claimed that the Rules committee was divided over the issue.

"If the move is turned into a Rule or Act, the legislators will not be allowed to raise any corruption issue after three years or four years or more. The Speaker assured us to seek details from the Parliament secretariat. It will be tabled in the next meeting of the Rules Committee. Let's see what happens.", Chowdhury, who is the leader of the CPI(M) legislature party, said.