Out on bail in the school jobs scam case, former minister and suspended TMC MLA Partha Chatterjee has been included in several important committees of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.
According to the Assembly bulletin, released on Tuesday, the Behala West legislator has been appointed as a member of the Assembly’s Housing and Fire Emergency Services Committee, Disaster Management Committee, and Library Committee.
Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in July 23, 2022, after the central agency, probing the alleged irregularities in the appointment of government teachers in 2016, recovered more than Rs 50 crore in cash from his friend Arpita Mukherjee‘s flat. Chatterjee was the state Education Minister between 2014 and 2021. At the time of the arrest, he was the Industries and Parliamentary Affairs Minister.
Following his arrest, the TMC government removed him from the state Cabinet. The party also suspended him for six years.
Last September, he was granted conditional bail by the Calcutta High Court, but he could not walk out of jail due to a Supreme Court order that required charges to be framed and statements of witnesses to be recorded in his pending cases.
Last November, the final eight witnesses recorded their statements, after which a special CBI court ordered Chatterjee’s release.
Since his release on November 11, Chatterjee has been keeping a low profile. Recently, he had said that he would attend the Assembly session, the last before the state election, which is likely to take place in the March-April period.
“According to the Assembly Rules, the chief minister, any minister and the Leader of the Opposition cannot be made members of any Standing Committee or Committee of the Assembly. After becoming an MLA for the first time in 2001, Partha Chatterjee was a part of several House panels. However, after becoming the Leader of the Opposition in 2006 and after the TMC came to power in 2011, he was not a member of any House committee due to his long tenure as a Cabinet minister. As he is not currently in any ministry, he has returned to the Assembly committees,” said a TMC leader.
Two motions on SIR submitted, one by Govt, another by ISF
With Assembly elections due in March or April, the TMC government will present a vote-on-account in the Assembly on February 5 (Thursday).
Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee said the Governor will address the House in the first half of the day on Thursday, followed by a vote-on-account in the second half.
The Speaker also said that a motion on the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls will be taken up in the 7-day session that began on Tuesday.
“Two motions on the SIR exercise have been submitted – one by the government, which was placed by minister Shovandev Chatterjee, and the other by lone ISF MLA Naushad Siddiqui.
“Generally, when the ruling party proposes a motion, their motion is accepted. In this case, TMC’s motion was accepted. However, Naushad Siddiqui’s motion will also be mentioned,” a senior Assembly official said.