GUWAHATI: Dispur has finally given in to the Opposition's pressure, at least on one front. On the final day of the assembly's monsoon session, the state government told the house that it's ready to include all departments of the NC Hills Autonomous Council in the ongoing probe into the financial scam that had rocked the council.
Led by AGP, the Opposition has been demanding that the probe should include the affairs in the council from 2001. However, the government stressed that since the council's term was not same as that of the government, the probe should include at least two terms of the council.
"I am ready for it if the CBI wants to probe all departments. I cannot give the departments but CBI has to ask for it," Gogoi said after his reply in the house.
After the Opposition stalled the first two days of the current session after the Speaker refused to allow discussion on the alleged Rs 1000-crore financial scam in the autonomous council through an adjournment motion, Congress MLA Wazed Ali Choudhury on Saturday moved discussion on the funds scam.
He said the government had acted as soon as the first information of funds of the council being siphoned off to militants was received and the chief minister set up an inquiry commission headed by Justice (retd) RK Manisana Singh.
"Investigation by NIA and CBI came much later. The Opposition now wants the CBI be given mandate to cover all departments but we demand that the central investigating agency should not just cover all departments but should take everything into accounts from 1996.
The leader of the Opposition, Chandramohan Patowary, however, expressed dissatisfaction that the government chose not to discuss the issue through the adjournment motion but by another mechanism. "The motion was sought because the matter was urgent, but the government did not think so," he said.
Patowary said the government might have steered clear of the issue in the house, but the people were quite aware of the scam. "The issue is no longer confined to the four walls of the house," he said.
Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma dwelt on the immunity given to the NC Hills Autonomous Council by the 6th Schedule of the Constitution. "We could not have discussed NC Hills because the government has no powers to interfere there. The governor is the sole head of the council.
But law and order has not been taken away from the state government and we promptly took over the case when the money meant for handing over to DHD (J) militants was found in the city," Sarma said.
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