Opposition CPI(M) MLAs continued their boycott of the ongoing Tripura Assembly session on Thursday despite Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha requesting them to return to the House. CPI-M legislators agitated in front of the B R Ambedkar statue at the Tripura Assembly premises in protest against the Speaker’s decision to accept Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ratan Lal Nath’s privilege motion against erstwhile communist party mouthpiece Daily Desher Katha but reject Opposition leader Jitendra Chaudhury’s privilege motion against Nath for making purported racial slur against him. “Arguments happen everywhere… I have heard they (the Opposition CPI-M MLAs) would remain absent for the rest of the session. Any problem can be solved by discussion. (The state) budget is an important thing. I would appeal to them to return to the House and join discussions,” the CM said Wednesday. Taking a cue from the CM’s appeal, veteran Congress MLA Gopal Chandra Roy and former minister Sudip Roy Barman on Thursday sought the Speaker’s intervention to bring the CPI-M MLAs back. However, members of the treasury benches protested against the proposal, and Speaker Biswabandhu Sen also turned it down, stating that the Opposition had rejected the appeal of the leader of the House. While talking to reporters, Chaudhary Thursday alleged that Speaker Sen violated Assembly procedures by rejecting his privilege motion. Sen had claimed that the privilege motion of the parliamentary affairs minister was accepted instead of the Opposition’s privilege motion since the minister’s letter reached him first. The Speaker also stated that the letter for a privilege motion must be submitted in writing to the Assembly Secretary before the start of a day’s session, and a copy of the document based on which the complaint is being made must be attached. Chaudhury demanded that the parliamentary affairs minister’s privilege motion be declared invalid and that a privilege motion be initiated against the minister instead. Meanwhile, during the Reference Period, Chief Minister Saha, who also holds the Public Works Department (Drinking Water and Sanitation), said in response to a question moved by MLA and Agartala Mayor Dipak Majumder that the state government is planning to increase the navigability of River Howrah, which flows near Agartala City. The river had flooded large parts of the state last year. “River Howrah has originated from the western side of Baramura Hills and flows westward, merging with River Titas in Bangladesh. (Of the) 488 sq km catchment area of the river – 50 sq km is in the hills and 438 sq km in plains. There was a thin habitation in its basin in the past, but with time, settlements came up along the banks of this river in Agartala city. The people of this city have been using the river to fulfill their needs. The riverbank population has not only polluted its water but has also played a role in its morphological change,” CM Saha said in his reply. He added that the river’s natural flow has changed, and its navigability has declined over the years due to the construction of dams, roads, pillars of bridges, and causeways along and across the riverbed. Sand and water extraction, solid waste disposal, agriculture, and hillock excavation also affected the natural flow of the river. The CM also said that deforestation and resultant soil erosion, among others, have led to lower water retention capacity in the river. Saha said a draft concept paper for the construction of a 9.33 km-long flood wall from the barbed wire fence along the Indo-Bangla international border to Chandrapur Devatacherra Bridge has been prepared to address the recurrent flood situation in Agartala city. The project worth Rs 248 crore would be implemented in the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) mode depending on the availability of funds. He also said that a concept paper for the dredging and rejuvenation of River Howrah was sent to the Ministry of Jal Shakti with support from the Agartala Smart City Project in December 2020, and the state government was waiting for approval from the Centre. Meanwhile, the government will undertake a special initiative to clean silt and waste from the River Howrah in the next six months, Saha informed. Tripura suffered devastating floods last year, which cost 38 lives apart from affecting over 17 lakh people. Out of 12 rivers in the state, 11 crossed the danger level during the floods last year. Six rivers also notched up their respective highest water levels, affecting all eight districts in Tripura. Replying to a different question moved by MLA Ranjit Das, the CM said his government is also working to purify water from Lake Dumbur, which is the reservoir of the Gumti hydroelectric project.
