Budget session in Assembly becomes chaotic as BJP demands CAG report to be tabled in House
Telegraph | 7 February 2024
The ongoing Budget session in the Assembly on Tuesday saw chaotic scenes with BJP legislators sloganeering after the Speaker rejected an adjournment motion moved by some MLAs of the saffron camp demanding the CAG report be tabled in the House.
According to the CAG report, the state government was responsible for not submitting 2.4 lakh utilisation certificates of projects worth nearly Rs 2 lakh crore.
The incident occurred minutes before noon during Question Hour. Six BJP legislators, including the leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, moved the adjournment motion, urging that the CAG report be tabled and discussed. However, Speaker Biman Banerjee dismissed any discussion on the motion, sparking a protest by BJP MLAs, who raised slogans and brandished posters.
The BJP MLAs did not leave the House but disrupted the proceedings by raising slogans to demand a probe into the alleged misappropriation of funds cited in the report, which compelled the Speaker to adjourn the first half of the session.
“I am not going to suspend anyone like in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha,” Speaker Banerjee said before adjourning the House, referring to the 146 MPs suspended during the winter session of Parliament for creating "chaos".
BJP legislators then went to the Assembly gates and started shouting slogans.
“If the Speaker had gone by convention, he would have allowed us to read the adjournment motion but instead of doing that, he rejected it. This proves that the government is scared of the CAG report. Despite this, we didn’t walk out of the Assembly till the House was adjourned,” Adhikari said in a news conference.
“The CAG report also says that there are numerous fake accounts and the state government was responsible for diverting funds,” Adhikari said, adding that the BJP legislators would march to governor C.V. Ananda Bose after the end of the session and ask him to request the CAG to lodge an FIR against the chief minister.
Reacting to Adhikari’s allegation, senior Trinamul Congress leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said: “The CAG report also says that the Centre is responsible for misappropriating funds worth Rs 7.5 lakh crore. They are telling lies about the state government. Let them speak about the Centre first and then they can criticise the state government.”
The BJP on Wednesday will demand a statement from the chief minister on alleged atrocities against women in Bengal. “There are incidents when women are subjected to inhuman torture. Our MLA Malati Rava Roy will move an adjournment motion and we demand a statement from the chief minister, who is also a lady,” BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul said.
BJP moves HC
A plea was moved on Tuesday before a Calcutta High Court division bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam by BJP state general secretary Jagannath Chatterjee, seeking an early hearing of the petition he moved a year back seeking court intervention into alleged scams by the Trinamul government. Chatterjee's plea, based on the CAG report, was filed on February 3 last year. The bench assured Chatterjee that his plea would be heard soon.