Aizawl, July 24: Mizoram Assembly Speaker R Lalawia today suspended opposition Congress MLA Nirupam Chakma for a day for disobeying the chair. During the discussion on the budgetary demands of Chief Minister Zoramthanga and local administration minister H Vanlaluava, Chakma was found reading from a prepared script. The Speaker told Chakma, a former minister in the Lal Thanhawla government, to stop reading from the script as it was against the rules of the state assembly. ''You cannot read unless you distribute the copies of the script in the house or submit the copy,'' Lalawia told the legislator who insisted that he was delivering a speech and not reading from a written script.

After some time, the speaker said the MLA was reading again and announced his suspension for a day for deliberately disobeying the chair. Leader of the Congress legislature party Zakhu Hlychho and other party members pleaded with the Speaker to withdraw his ruling but to no avail.

Bureau Report