NEW DELH, Aug 22: The Manipur cabinet has set a new date for convening the state Assembly session.
The Manipur Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister N. Biren Singh at its meeting on Tuesday decided to recommend to the governor to convene the monsoon session of the Assembly on August 29.
The Chief Minister’s Office on Tuesday announced this decision through X. This is the third such decision by the Manipur Cabinet since July. The monsoon session, if held, would be the fourth of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly.
The Manipur Assembly failed to hold a special session on Monday to discuss the ongoing ethnic violence as the governor Anusuiya Uikey had refused to execute the cabinet’s earlier decision to convene the state Assembly on August 21. The recommendation for August 21 session was sent by the cabinet on July 29.
The Governor was requested again on August 4 to convene the Assembly on August 21, but Raj Bhavan did not issue any notification for holding the special session. Officials in the State’s capital Imphal said the Governor normally issues the notification 15 days ahead of any session of the Assembly.
“We expect a notification from Raj Bhavan this time,” a senior official said. According to the rules, an Assembly is required to sit within six months of the last day of the previous session. The last session of the 60-member Manipur House was adjourned in March and the next is due by September 2.
But the 10 Kuki MLAs, seven of them from ruling BJP, are not expected to attend the session if it is eventually held because of “security reasons.” Ethnic clashes between the Kuki and Meitei communities since May 3 left about 160 people dead and displaced more than 60,000 others.
(Manas Dasgupta)