West Bengal: TMC sets new rules for MLA attendance during Assembly session
Sep 22, 2023
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], September 23 : In the wake of party MLAs skipping the Assembly session, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has decided to maintain two attendance registers for its legislators in the Assembly and send a weekly attendance report to party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The attendance registers will be put in the office of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister and in the chief whip’s room.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said that the decision was taken during a disciplinary committee meeting of TMC MLAs, formed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after several party legislators were absent in the Assembly during the last session.
Headed by Chattopadhyay, who is the chairman of the disciplinary committee, the panel includes Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim, Power Minister Arup Biswas, Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya and Minister of State for Forest Department Birbaha Hansda as its members.
Chattopadhyay, while speaking to ANI, said, "I convened a meeting and there we (observed) that when the Speaker conducts voting (inside the Assembly) that time the number of members present sometimes are horrible. We have 236 members but the presence (of party members during voting) is 130, 140, 160. That is not deserving."
He said that in the meeting, it was 'unanimously' decided that all the members have to sign in an attendance register, separate from the Assembly register.
"The ministers will sign the register in my room and the MLAs will sign their attendance in the chief whip's room," he said, adding that every weekend during the Assembly, a report, to the Chief Minister, stating who all didn't participate in the Assembly proceedings will be sent.
Chattopadhyay, who has been an MLA since 1991, however, added that no notification has been sent to the MLAs till now and a decision will be taken only after a meeting with TMC supremo.
