Kolkata, April 3 The internal disciplinary committee of Trinamool Congress’ legislative party in West Bengal assembly will decide on April 8 the quantum of punishment for 30 party legislators including one member of the state Cabinet, for being absent on the last day of the second round of the budget session of the assembly on March 20 ignoring whip issued by the party.
It has been learnt the meeting of the five-member disciplinary committee will meet at 2 p.m. on April and there the 30 defaulting legislators including the cricketer-turned-politician and the current West Bengal minister of state for youth and sports affair department Manoj Tiwari will be given an opportunity to justify why internal disciplinary action should not be initiated against them for ignoring the party whip.
The committee is chaired by the state Parliamentary affairs minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay.
The other members of the committee include the West Bengal minister of state for finance (independent charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya, the state municipal affairs and urban development minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, state power minister Arup Biswas and the chief whip of Trinamool Congress’ legislative party in state assembly Nirmal Ghosh.
Initially, it was decided that this particular meeting of the disciplinary committee will be March 29. However, the meeting on that date was cancelled because of the preoccupations of the MLAs including the members of the disciplinary committee because of the Eid festival.
Trinamool Congress issued a whip making the presence of all party legislators mandatory on the last two days of the second round of the budget session of the assembly on March 19 and March 20. However, the whip was not applicable for the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Although the presence on the part of the legislators was almost 100 per cent on March 19, several legislators, including the minister, skipped attendance on March 20.
“On March 19, the Chief Minister was herself present at the assembly and she addressed the house. So probably the attendance was more or less normal on that day since nobody wanted to face the ire of the Chief Minister because of her absence. However, the same thing did not happen on March 20,” said a member of the state cabinet.
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