MPs walk out of standing panel meeting

Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi earned the wrath of Parliamentarians on Monday as he left a Standing Committee meeting midway citing prior engagements, prompting walk out by two Trinamool Congress MPs.

The meeting was called in the afternoon to hear the home secretary on the recent disaster in Chennai caused by torrential rainfall and consequent flooding.

The deliberations started with the presentation of Mehrishi on the issue, which lasted for about 30 minutes.

Soon after his presentation was through, sources said, Mehrishi passed on a chit to Congress MP P Bhattacharya, the Chairman of Standing Committee on Home Affairs, informing him that he has to leave as he has an important meeting scheduled.

As he was leaving, MPs in the panel objected to his behaviour and questioned it. MPs like CPM’s Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D Raja, Congress’s K Rahman Khan and Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien objected to Mehrishi leaving the meeting without waiting to respond to their queries. Mehrishi was criticised earlier also for not attending the Parliamentary panel meeting.

Sources said MPs were upset, as they wanted to seek clarifications from him on the steps taken by the ministry to provide relief as well as the lacune in their efforts. O’Brien was vocal against Mehrishi’s absence and he along with his party colleague Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar walked out of the meeting.
DH New Service