Kolkata: Citing ‘preoccupations’ West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will not attend an all-party meeting Friday called by Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to discuss issues pertaining to two bills, a Raj Bhavan official said here.
The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) informed the Governor’s Secretariat that on account of preoccupations Friday, it will not be possible for Banerjee to attend the meeting, the Raj Bhavan said in a statement.
Dhankhar has been engaged in a face-off with Banerjee and her party, the Trinamool Congress, over a host of issues since assuming charge as the Governor of West Bengal.
The meeting was called by the governor to discuss two bills passed by the Assembly, which are awaiting his assent.
The statement said that ‘on account of there being no inputs from the state government and the state Legislative Assembly in spite of repeated efforts’ with regard to the pendency of ‘The West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill, 2019’ and ‘West Bengal State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Bill, 2019’, the meeting had been convened by the governor.
“The Governor has urged the Chief Minister to give priority to this matter and spare time at the earliest for a meeting on these issues,” the statement added.
Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Abdul Mannan, and Left Front Legislature Party leader Sujan Chakraborty have requested that the meeting be held n January 21, the statement said, adding that it will be scheduled on the requested date.
The Raj Bhavan has also been informed that the Leader of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Rohit Sharma, is currently bedridden, it said.
Meanwhile in another development Banerjee went down memory lane and paid tribute Friday to Leftist stalwart and CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu on his 10 death anniversary. Basu had served as West Bengal Chief Minister from 1977 to 2000. He was one of the prime political adversaries of Banerjee.
“Remembering Jyoti Basu, former chief minister of Bangla, on his death anniversary,” Banerjee tweeted.
Basu, the longest-serving chief minister of Bengal, died January 17, 2010 at the age of 95. Born July 8, 1914, he had led the Marxists to power for five consecutive times in West Bengal.
PTI
