Ruckus in Bengal Assembly as BJP's motion for discussing CAG findings rejected by Speaker

Kolkata, Feb 6 (IANS) There was major ruckus in the West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday after Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay turned down the Adjournment Motion brought by BJP legislators seeking a discussion on recent CAG findings that don’t reflect well on the state government.

On Thursday, six BJP legislators led by the Leader of Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, submitted the Adjournment Motion seeking discussion on the state government’s non-submission of utilisation certificates worth over Rs 2 crore for funds released under various centrally-sponsored schemes.

However, the Speaker refused to accept the motion and turned down the plea for discussion.

The refusal irked the BJP legislators and led by Suvendu Adhikari they started protesting and trooped into the Well of the House shouting “thieves, thieves.”

However, despite the pandemonium, the Speaker decided not to suspend a single legislator from the ongoing Budget Session.

The state’s budget will be presented on Thursday and for the following two days there will be discussions on it in the House.

As the ruckus within the Assembly continued endlessly on Tuesday the Speaker adjourned the House. The BJP legislators then started protesting in the Assembly lobby shouting slogans and waving posters with anti-government slogans written on it.

“The CAG report has clearly indicated irregularities in the use of funds under the centrally- sponsored schemes. The ruling party has denied the irregularities highlighted there. Now my question is if they are innocent, why are they avoiding discussions on the floor of the House? The Speaker of the House is supposed to be neutral. So he should have given the permission for discussion,” said BJP legislator Agnimitra Paul.