Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government is likely to bring a motion in the state Assembly during the upcoming Budget Session, condemning the “hyper-activity” of central investigative agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the state ahead of Assembly elections.
Sources within the Trinamool Congress (TMC) confirmed that the Treasury benches may also move a separate motion criticising “hasty” and “unplanned” implementation of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in the state. Party insiders said both motions are likely to be moved by the state Agriculture and
Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, who is also a senior leader of the ruling party, is likely to move both the motions in the Assembly during the Budget Session, scheduled to begin on February 3 and conclude on February 9.
The proposed motion against the CBI and ED assumes significance in the wake of the recent developments involving the ED raid and search operations at the Indian Political Action Committee’s (I-PAC) office in Salt Lake and the residence of its co-founder Pratik Jain, in central Kolkata. The issue is, however, currently under judicial scrutiny, with petitions filed by both sides pending before the Apex Court.
Trinamool Congress supremo and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on several occasions in the recent past, raised fundamental questions if public institutions were neutral or were they subject to pressures exercised by the ruling dispensation at the Centre.
Banerjee also questioned the role, responsibility, and conduct of a number of public institutions, including the Election Commission of India (ECI) when it comes to the implementation of SIR in Bengal. Banerjee had written a series of letters to the Chief Election Commissioner regarding the SIR of electoral rolls.