Talking to mediapersons here today leader of the opposition Ratan Lal Nath said the ministers had been misleading the House with incorrect facts, distorting the Cabinet decisions and the Speaker and Deputy Speaker were also not playing a neutral role and were sometimes running the House violating the norms and rules.
Referring to yesterday's session Mr Nath said Transport Minister Manik Dey ignored Chief Minister Manik Sarkar's public statement in 2005 that the state government would convert the vehicles to Compressed Natural Gas within six months in phased manner, but even after five years no single government car had been converted as on date. Now the transport minister was making statements in the House that the government had not made any such commitment.
He pointed out that Gauhati High Court had asked the state government to withdraw 15-year-old vehicles in phased manner three months ago, but Mr Dey instead said the Court had asked them to think on the issue, not to implement, which amounted to a criminal contempt of court. Similarly, Industry Minister Jitendra Choudhury, in a reply, said Tripura had not yet set up the State Skill Development Mission (SSDM) for unemployed youths but in the Governor's speech early this year it was mentioned, ''The government is imparting skill development training to the youths through SSDM.'' On the latest death of 28 tribals in remote Kangrai hamlet under North Tripura along Tripura-Mizoram border following sudden spread of acute respiratory infection (ARI), the opposition leader alleged that Health Minster Tapan Chakraborty suppressed facts. Quoting the report of the District Magistrate he stated that the deaths occurred due to malnutrition and water contamination, but the minister misquoted the report and said 24 people had died.
''When we sought permission to move privilege motion against Mr Chakraborty, Deputy Speaker Bhanu Lal Saha did not allow us and instead compelled us to walk out of the House and Chief Minister Manik Sarkar also did not make any statement on the development,'' Mr Nath said.
Mr Chakraborty, who is also the Minister of School Education, misinterpreted the Cabinet decision and did not spell out anything about malpractices and irregularities in the secondary board examinations, Mr Nath alleged.
