Guwahati: Manipur Governor Anusuya Uikey has summoned the long-pending session of the state assembly on August 29. The assembly had last convened for the budget session from February 21 to March 3. The ethnic violence in May automatically pushed back the monsoon session. Last month, the government recommended a session by August 21, and when there was no green signal from the Raj Bhavan, revised the date to August 28.
Article 174 of the Constitution maintains that "six months shall not intervene between its [state legislature] last sitting in one Session and the date appointed for its first sitting in the next Session".
Over the last month, Opposition parties and Meitei civil society groups have been repeatedly asking for re-convention of the assembly. The government's initial request too, got no response.
This morning, the Chief Minister's Office posted its decision to reconvene the assembly from August 29 on social media.
'The State Cabinet chaired by Hon'ble CM N Biren Singh on Monday 21/08/2023 took a decision to convene the 4the Session of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly (Monsoon Session) on August 29, 2023," read its post on X, formerly Twitter.
The Congress said not convening the assembly for monsoon session despite repeated requests by the state government is further evidence of the "breakdown" of constitutional machinery in the violence-hit state. The Governor is meant to convene the assembly on the advice of the state government.
Senior Congress leader and the party's communication in-charge Jairam Ramesh posted on X: "On July 27th, the state government requests the Governor of Manipur to convene a special session of the Assembly in the third week of August. On August 4th, Governor is requested once again to convene a special session, but this time on a specific date, namely August 21st. Today is August 21st and the special session has not been called. There has been no Monsoon session of the Assembly either. This is further evidence that the Constitutional machinery has simply broken down in Manipur".
Sources said 10 Kuki MLAs might skip the session and the tribe's civil society might oppose it. The MLAs have refused to attend the session as the assembly is located in the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley. MLAs from the Naga tribe, however, will attend the session, sources said.