Kolkata, June 16 (IANS) Pandemonium broke out within the West Bengal Assembly on Monday, the sixth day of the Monsoon Session of the House, following protests by the members of the BJP’s legislative team during the speech by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. This ultimately led to the suspension of the BJP legislator from Kumargram Assembly constituency in Alipurduar district, Manoj Kumar Oraon from the House.

However, it is not yet clear for how long Oraon has been suspended.

After the suspension of Oraon was announced by Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay on Monday afternoon, the BJP legislators protested first on the floor of the House and then staged a walkout.

Thereafter, they started a sit-in demonstration on the lawn of the Assembly with posters denouncing the suspension of Oraon.

The ruckus started after the Chief Minister rose to deliver her speech and attacked the Union government on the freezing of funds under different centrally-sponsored projects in West Bengal.

“The Union government has stopped payment under the MGNREGA scheme. The dues to the West Bengal government under different centrally-sponsored projects are being diverted to other states.

“Several investigation teams have come to West Bengal and in all the cases the state government answered their queries. But even after that, the payments have been stopped,” the Chief Minister said.

Amid her speech, the BJP legislator led by the party’s Chief Whip in the Assembly Shankar Ghosh started protesting and raising slogans within the House. Soon after that, the Speaker announced the suspension of Oraon from the Assembly.

While the BJP legislators were protesting, the Chief Minister was heard saying that Bengali-speaking people in some other states are often branded as Bangladeshis and harassed.

Earlier, as the proceedings of the House started for the day, the BJP legislators sought a discussion on the state of affairs in the education system of West Bengal.

However, the Speaker declined their demand and said that since the matter was sub judice it could not be discussed on the floor of the House.

However, in their counter-argument, the BJP legislators argued that there had been several instances in the past where sub judice matters were discussed on the floor of the House.

–IANS

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