Bengal Assembly Speaker issues directions not to provide BJP MLAs documents of House proceedings

Kolkata: West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay on Tuesday directed the secretary of the House to not provide any document related to its proceedings to BJP legislators.

Bandyopadhyay’s directive came after MLAs of the saffron party tore official documents in the assembly, as the Speaker turned down their proposal to adjourn the House over alleged attacks on temples in different parts of the state, and staged a walkout.

The Speaker also rejected the BJP legislators’ proposal of introducing a bill related to children.

Bandyopadhyay alleged that BJP MLAs have earlier, too, torn documents of House proceedings in the assembly, while staging protests.

“Do not give them (BJP MLAs) papers (related to assembly proceedings),” he told the secretary of the House.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari dubbed Bandyopadhyay’s decision the “rarest incident in the Indian Constitution”.

“There is no democracy even inside the legislative assembly. The opposition is not being heard. The Trinamool Congress government is trying to do everything by force. The walkout by BJP MLAs is in protest against this,” said Adhikari, who was earlier suspended from the assembly till March 18 for allegedly insulting the chair of the Speaker during the budget session.

Adhikari also said BJP legislators will hold a bigger protest in front of the assembly on Wednesday.