Congress and CPM MLAs staged a walkout in the state Assembly to
protest against the issue of “cut money” and demanded an inquiry into
it.
Shouting slogans against the state government over the issue, MLAs of
both the parties at first came down to the well and demanded that the
government set up an inquiry commission to look into the issue. Later,
they staged a walkout. The MLAs were carrying posters and placards
saying ‘Cut Money means Chief Minister’. After protesting outside the
assembly for sometime, they re-entered the House and participated in the
proceedings.
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corrupted – this theory is no longer valid.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)
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