IMPHAL, March 11: The Manipur Legislative Assembly has started an enquiry in connection with the resignation tendered by the four NPF MLAs of Manipur, which are yet to be accepted by the Assembly.
Sources informed that the enquiry was constituted to ascertain whether the resignations were voluntary or genuine as per the rule of procedure and conduct of business of the House.
However, it is not clear as to when the enquiry commenced.
In the wake of the enquiry, the Assembly secretariat is said to have sent show cause notice to two newspapers including a local daily and a Nagaland based newspaper for publishing a report regarding refunding of salaries and allowances by the NPF MLAs, that they had drawn since tendering their resignations, according to a source.
The notice has sought the authenticity of the report published by the newspapers, the source said.
Reacting to reports surrounding the confusion of the acceptance and non acceptance of the resignation submitted by the NFP MLAs, veteran politician O Joy Singh lamented on the sluggish nature on the part of the Assembly in dealing with the issue.
As per article 190(3) (B), if a representative tenders his resignation the authority should ascertain whether the resignation is genuine or voluntary. Moreover, a representative cannot be absent for 60 sittings including the Assembly session or committee meetings related with the House, he said.
However, in the present case six months have lapsed since the MLAs tendered their resignation and apparently there is no headway, he said adding that the people are still confused.
Against this backdrop, the MLAs were reportedly allowed to withdraw their salaries and allowances and now report are doing rounds that the NPF MLAs have submitted their entitlements.
“This is nothing but a blunder on the part of the authority concerned”, contended Joy
According to him, there are three ways to end the imbroglio; the first option would be to accept the resignation of the MLAs, second to reject them and third the MLAs withdrawing their resignations.