The budget session of the West Bengal Assembly is all set to start from Monday with Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s speech at 2pm.
The governor will be welcomed by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with whom he has been embroiled in a war of words.
Dhankhar met assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee at Raj Bhawan, asking him to show his speech live during the session. The governor had invited the Speaker for interaction on, among other things, live coverage of his address to the House on Monday, complaining that it had been ‘blacked out’ on earlier occasions. “In view of unwholesome situations during the earlier such addresses to the Assembly, including ‘black out’ of ‘live coverages’ of the address, I find it expedient to have an interaction with the Hon’ble Speaker so that sanctity of the proceedings is maintained and dignity of the office of the Governor is not compromised,” Dhankhar wrote to Biman Banerjee.
In a tweet, Dhankhar wrote, “There was (an) interaction at Raj Bhawan today between Governor and Assembly Speaker for an hour regarding the upcoming assembly session.” The decision to broadcast the speech live will be made on Monday.
Dhankhar on Sunday also wrote to Mamata Banerjee, alleging that she was responsible for a ‘dialogue stalemate’ between the two top constitutional functionaries of the state.
“Dialogue stalemate” between the top constitutional functionaries in the state- the governor and the chief minister, has been causing serious concern in well-meaning quarters. It has thus become expedient to put in the public domain continual and sustained outreach efforts by the Governor to catalyze dialogue with the chief minister,” he wrote. Dhankhar has once again called a meeting with Mamata Banerjee at Raj Bhavan anytime next week to discuss issues he had flagged in recent months.
An all-party meeting has been called at 12 noon. After that there is a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee at 1pm where the length of the assembly session will be decided along with the bills to be proposed.
