In legislative parlance, “guillotine” means bunching together and fast-tracking the passage of financial business without any discussion. While the Opposition parties have questioned the intention of the TMC government behind sending budgetary provisions of so many departments to guillotine, the ruling TMC has cited “time constraint” for doing so.

According to the rules, after laying the Budget, the government has to place all department’s budgets separately for discussions and approval of the House. However, every year some department’s budget is sent to guillotine. “It has become a tradition in the TMC government. Every year more than 50% of the department’s budget is sent to guillotine. However, 10 to 12 departments’ budgets were discussed every year in the House. But, this time an unprecedented 55 departments’ budgets were sent to guillotine. No discussions were held for Home, Industry, Education, Health, Transport like important departments. This never happened earlier in the House when only three departments’ allocations were discussed,” a senior official of the Legislative Assembly said.

However, the Opposition BJP questioned the government’s decision, calling the ruling TMC “undemocratic”. “This government is not democratic. They do not want positive and concrete discussion. That is why they avoided all types of discussion in the Assembly,” BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said.

“This government has no agenda or focus on development. Their only agenda is to give dole and buy votes from people. Naturally, they are not in favour of discussion… If they are so bothered by the Opposition’s demand then, they will allow discussion of law and order of the state; they will allow discussion on Sandeshkhali… They do not want to (discuss) because they know that if they lay these departmental budgets, then their corrupt practices will come in front of people,” BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul said.

However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shovandev Chattopadhyay defended the treasury bench decision, saying, “The Chief Minister (Mamata Banerjee) was busy with other assignments, and we were also short of time. That is why the maximum number of the department’s budget has been sent to guillotine.”

TMC’s Deputy Legislative Party Leader Nirmal Ghosh said, “We can arrange discussions of some more departments. But where is the Opposition? Generally, the Opposition parties demand for discussion. In this House, they are busy with walkouts. How will the discussion be held?”