West Bengal Assembly to hold debate on Home Department budget after 15 years

PTI, July 17, 2026, Kolkata : The BJP government in West Bengal has decided to revive the Assembly debate on the Home (Police) Department's budget after 15 years, ending a practice under the Trinamool Congress regime when its demands were routinely guillotined, a senior leader said on Friday.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who also holds the Home portfolio, will personally reply to the discussion on the department's budget. The nearly three-hour debate is scheduled for July 22.

The decision marks a significant departure from the practice followed during the previous Trinamool Congress regime, when the Home Department's budgetary demands were guillotined without discussion as part of the passage of the Budget.

The only exception was in 2011, when the newly elected Mamata Banerjee government allowed an extensive debate on the Home budget to highlight what it described as the deteriorating law-and-order situation inherited from the Left Front government.

Since then, however, successive Budget sessions under the Trinamool Congress government saw the Home Department's demands guillotined despite several politically contentious incidents, including the Khagragarh blast, the Bogtui killings, the RG Kar hospital case and violence during panchayat elections, in which 11 people were killed in a single day.

"Our government has nothing to hide from the people. The previous Trinamool government guillotined the Home budget every year to avoid discussion on its failures in law and order and corruption. There is a people's government in Bengal today, and the opposition will also get an opportunity to participate in the debate on the Home budget," BJP chief whip Amlan Bhaduri said.