Bengal budget session: 2nd phase to begin today without LoP in House
Kolkata: The second phase of the budget session of the West Bengal Assembly will start from Monday without the Leader of Opposition (LoP), Suvendu Adhikari, in the House, as he has been suspended.
Adhikari and three other BJP legislators were suspended for a month in the first round of the budget session last month, and their suspension period will continue till the end of the second term on March 19.
The second phase of the state budget session will mainly be about the discussions on the budgetary allocations for different state government departments. However, the opposition BJP is quite aggrieved over the schedule which shows that discussions will be held only for a few departments like namely education, health, power, labour, panchayat affairs and rural development, municipal affairs and urban development in the second round of the budget session, while the same for the remaining departments will not be held. This means that the budgetary allocations will be passed without any discussion in the House.
BJP’s legislative team is especially peeved by the no-discussion policy as the departments whose budgetary allocation will be cleared without discussion include the state home department. The police department, which comes under the home department, is under the direct control of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
However, the BJP legislators, led by the party chief whip in the state Assembly, Shankar Ghosh, are all set to protest on the floor of the House on why so many crucial departments have been kept out of the list of subjects for discussions.
The Chief Minister, Trinamool Congress insiders said, is likely to be present at the House on March 12, when the discussions on the state panchayat affairs and rural development will be held on the floor of the House. On the same day, she is also likely to chair a meeting of the state cabinet within the Assembly premises.
Another issue over which, the second round of the budget session is expected to witness heated moments is the crisis at Jadavpur University in Kolkata over the March 1 ruckus within the varsity campus in which two students were severely injured and hospitalised after being “allegedly and deliberately” hit by the vehicle of state Education Minister Bratya Basu.
The BJP legislators are gearing up to confront the state education minister on the issue in the House.