West Bengal: CPM, Cong MLAs walk out of House, demands inquiry

Leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan demanded setting up of a commission to probe the allegations. “If former West Bengal chief minister Siddharta Shankar Ray could set up a commission after receiving corruption allegations against his cabinet of ministers, why can’t the present government do the same? From gram panchayat members to councillors, corruption charges have been made against all these leaders. Even Mamata Banerjee’s name is coming up. There should be a commission headed by a retired justice to look into the matter,” he said.

CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty demanded that money be returned to the people within three months from now. “They are all saint and others are corrupted – this theory is no longer valid. They have taken the money from people and they will have to return it. The government must return the money within three months. After such a time it must disclose how much money has been returned to the people. The government must immediately start refunding the money by opening a counter at the state secretariat,” Chakraborty said.

Reacting to the protest, Parliamentary Affairs Minister and senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee said the Opposition is not interested in smooth functioning of the House. “They only want to disrupt the House and nothing else,” he said.

TMC leaders at the municipal and panchayat levels have been facing public ire in the districts of Birbhum, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Burdwan, Malda, Purulia, Nadia, Kolkata, West Midnapore and Bankura. TMC Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen, too, has recently faced allegations of seeking “cut money” from a realtor in north Kolkata. Sen has denied the accusation as “baseless and politically-motivated” to malign his reputation.

(With PTI inputs)