Opposition boycotts West Bengal assembly

TNN | Feb 1, 2017, 07.KOLKATA: As Trinamool Congress began their two day boycott of the Budget session, which started on Tuesday, back home it had to face a "boycott" by all opposition parties in the all-party meeting convened ahead of the state assembly's budget session that starts on February 3.

Trinamool had also stayed away from the customary all-party meeting in New Delhi on Monday. Having announced that they would boycott the first two days of the Budget session, all Trinamool Congress MPs stayed away from President Pranab Mukherjee's address to the joint sitting of Parliament. They will attend the proceedings on February 2.

The opposition parties, including BJP, Congress and Left Front, stayed away from the all-party meeting -a prelude to the state budget session -convened by Speaker Biman Basu at the assembly on Tuesday. After tabling the state budget, the Mamata Banerjee government is likely to bring two important bills -the education bill and the property bill -in this session.

"Our proposals are never entertained so we decided to boycott the all party meeting," Leader of opposition Abdul Mannan told reporters. "They have always shown that they will use their brute majority to push things around. So what is the point in going there?" Left legislative party leader Sujan Chakraborty said. "The voice of the opposition is throttled and what is the need for an all-party meeting?" BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said.

Parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee rubbished these. He alleged that the opposition is tarnishing the glory of the house by behaving in such a manner for the sake of politics. "Their presence at the all party meeting was necessary as this would have helped the Speaker to run the session smoothly," he said.

Sources in the government said the state decided to bring amendment in the West Bengal Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1976. "We want to make the act more stringent," Chatterjee said. The amendment will be placed in the assembly on February 8.