Ignoring party Whip: Trinamool’s disciplinary panel seeks details of MLAs’ leave applications from Assembly Speaker

Kolkata, March 25 (IANS) The disciplinary committee of Trinamool Congress’ legislative party in the West Bengal Assembly, which is probing the absence of party MLAs in the just-concluded Budget Session ignoring party whips, has sought details of the leave applications submitted by the legislators to the office of the Speaker.

A source in the West Bengal Cabinet said that the decision to seek the details of such leave applications submitted at the Speaker’s office was taken at the first meeting of the disciplinary committee on Monday.

“In this case, the whip was about 100 per cent attendance of party legislators in the House on the last two days of the Budget Session on March 19 and March 20.

“While the presence was almost 100 per cent on March 19, over 50 party legislators remained absent on March 20.

“Ignoring whips is an offense and it could even result in cancellation of House membership, unless that absence is justified through applications made to the Speaker’s office, clearly citing the reasons behind absence or applying for leave in advance before the whip was issued.

“That is why the disciplinary committee has decided to seek details of such applications from the Speaker’s office,” the member of the state Cabinet said.

The chief of the disciplinary committee and the state Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, confirmed the development of seeking details of such applications from the Speaker.

“The MLAs cannot ignore party whips. After the details of such applications are made available, the next course of action will be decided,” he said.

The next meeting of the disciplinary committee will be held on March 29. It will be chaired by Sovandeb Chattopadhyay and will be attended by other members of the committee, namely Trinamool Congress Chief Whip in the House Nirmal Ghosh, West Bengal Minister of State for Finance (independent charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya, State Municipal Affairs & Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim and State Power Minister Arup Biwas.

Now, it remains to be seen whether the erring legislators will be let off with a note of caution or some disciplinary action would be initiated against them.

Last week, the MLA from the Bhagalpur Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district had to face the disciplinary committee for his alleged objectionable comments made about the Leader of the Opposition in the House, Suvendu Adhikari.

However, instead of recommending any disciplinary action against him, he was just cautioned to be careful and refrain from making any such comment in the future.

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