Pending Bills have become a flash point between the Governor and the ruling TMC in West Bengal. To sort out the issue, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has called for an all party meeting in Raj Bhawan on Jan 17 to diffuse the crisis. These two pendng Bills passed by the state Assembly, which he is yet to sign. His move comes in the wake of intensifying acrimony between him and the state Government, with the ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC) repeatedly accusing the Governor of hampering the state’s development by holding on to Bills passed by the legislature.
Dhankhar on Monday posted on Twitter his four-page letter, dated January 11, inviting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, as the leader of TMC, Leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan, of the Congress, along with legislative party leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M) and other parties. “@MamataOfficial The step has been taken for this meeting as on one hand the inputs are not being made available and on the other hand, total factually untenable information is being put in public domain both at the level of the Assembly as also the State Government,” Dhankhar tweeted.
The two Bills in question are West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill, 2019, and West Bengal State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Bill, 2019.
In this letter, Dhankhar, after elaborating on his points of concerns, including the government’s insufficient response to his queries, wrote that it had “become imperative for me to invite for appropriate deliberations and interaction with the Leaders of the Legislature Parties, so that in the true spirit of coordinated working, a way forward approach can be initiated.”
CPI(M)’s Sujan Chakraborty, who along with Congress’ Abdul Mannan had brought discrepancies in the West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill, to the Governor’s notice in September. However, Both-Congress and CPM leaders have expressed their inability to attend the meeting because they will be out of Kolkata on that day. Trinamool Congress has not responded yet.
