Imphal, May 07: After a briefed spell of commotion with Opposition threatening to walk out and heated argument on the demands of fund allocation for State Legislature, Council of Ministers, Secretariat and Finance Department, a total amount of Rs 25,03,19,200 has been passed by the Assembly today.

The proceeding of the Assembly was stalled for sometime at the beginning of discussion on the four demands jointly when Opposition member O Joy raised the Point of Order contending that discussion on passing the demands before receiving the annual report of the Manipur Public Service Commission which is under the Council of Minister amounts to violation of the Constitution.

Putting up the Point of Order, Joy said it is undemocratic to discuss the demands before the annual report of the MPSC is tabled on the floor of the House.

'If the report is not to be tabled, then I would not take part in the discussion and walked out of the House', Joy stated firmly and drew the attention of the Speaker for adjourning the session for a while until the report is tabled to facilitate discussion of the demands.

Speaker Dr Budhichandra assured that the report would be tabled next time so discussion of the demands may be started. Law and Legislative Affairs Minister Th Debendra conceded there would be lapses in the proceeding of the House without tabling the report first.

However, he maintained that there have been instances in the past in which the proceedings had been carried out without tabling the report.

Debendra assured that efforts would be made for tabling the report in the next session and discussion on the demands should be proceeded if the House permits.

Rejecting the proposal of the Minister as unconstitutional, Joy threatened to walk out of the House rather than taking part in the discussion without tabling the report and said the demands may be passed without the Opposition.

Supporting the stand of Joy, MLA Shyamkumar quipped that it would be advisable not to do anything which is in contradictory to the rules.

Amidst the commotion, Chief Minister O Ibobi observed that he hoped the report of the MPSC may be under preparation and there is no hard and fast rule that discussion on the demands may not be carried out without tabling the said report.

After the assurance given by him to table the report while discussion is going on, the matter was finally resolved.

Later taking part in the discussion of the demands, Joy charged that no secretary is being maintained in the Secretariat.

He pointed out that even before a project could be finalised, the details are known by others ahead of the Minister and the Head of Department concerned.

Moreover, many officials who have been convicted are found to have been given promotion after some time, he said, while expressing desire for more efficiency in the expansion of tax area of the Finance Department.

He further pointed out that it has become a hard task for an MLA to get an appointment with a Minister.

No response could be expected to the letter written to the Minister in connection with any work.

The Ministers should not remain posing like defunct electric transformers, they should do some work, Joy remarked.

Taking advantage of the discussion, House leader of the Opposition Radhabinod Koijam asserted that the budget for this year had been prepared hastily.

Consequently, the Plan amount current financial year 2007-08 is very low in comparison to the last financial year 2006-07.Moreover, in the power sector only six percent has been reflected in the Budget.

Without any increase in the Plan amount, how the budget had been finalised, he wondered. In the absence of any hike in the plan allocation for the power sector, those who are running small industries and IT sectors would be suffered a lot due to erratic power supply, he noted.

Opposition MLA I Ibohanbi asked how long the State Government has to live at the mercy of the Centre.

It is high time to mobilise the utlisation of the existing resources from the present below 90 percent to cent percent, he said.

RK Anand of the Opposition observed that corruption among the bureaucrats and other Govt officials could be eliminated only when there is no corruption among the legislators.

After listening to all these discussion for passing the demands, Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh clarified that the annual plan size could not be finalised in time owning to the scheduled of the State Assembly.

But now it has been finalised.

On mobilisation of the existing natural resources, the Chief Minister pointed out that the major task of computerisation of all the land records has been completed to enable in collection of more land revenue.

Along with approval of Imphal city under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewable Mission, steps would be taken up to remit service charges and levy taxes on various items, he said.

Asserting that the present Government has been able to manage its financial resources efficiently, the Chief Minister predicted that the non-plan revenue deficit would come down to around just Rs 8 crores in 2007-08.The House finally passed a sum of Rs 25,0 3,19,200 as demands for the State Legislature, Council of Ministers, Secretariat and Finance Department unanimously.

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