Impasse resolved, Monsoon session of Assembly from July 24

Kolkata: The impasse over the commencement of the monsoon session of the Bengal legislative Assembly from July 24 has been resolved with Governor CV Ananda Bose providing the nod to go forward with the session.

It is learnt that the Governor spoke with state Parliamentary Affairs minister Sobhandeb Chattopdhayay on Friday evening and following the conversation, the former cleared the file for the start of the Assembly session.

The same reached the state Assembly on Saturday morning.

It is customary to seek the Governor’s nod for the beginning of the Assembly session and the requisite file in this regard was forwarded to Raj Bhavan a few days back. However, the Governor sought clarifications on convening the session at such short notice.

The Governor’s secretary had called up state Parliamentary Affairs minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay on Thursday and asked him to come to Raj Bhavan for certain clarifications with the Governor being in Kerala. Chattopadhyay who is a senior-most member of the Assembly refused to meet him and the Governor’s secretary hang up the phone.

Chattopadhyay had expressed his dismay and had said that he felt insulted at the hanging up of the phone by the Governor’s secretary. On hearing the matter from state Assembly speaker Biman Banerjee, the Governor asked him to tell Chattopadhyay to call him.

Chattopadhyay acted accordingly and the Governor informed him that he had only wanted to know the reason behind calling the session at such short notice.

“I informed the Governor that there are some emergency Bills that the state government wants to introduce in this session and there is also the need for convening the extended session of the state Budget. He was convinced of the urgency and gave the nod for starting the session on Monday, July 24,” Chattopadhyay said.

The Business Advisory Committee will sit on Monday afternoon to decide the business for the session.

Earlier Nabanna had decided to hold the Cabinet meeting in the Assembly on July 24. However, with the delay in signing the file, the Cabinet meeting venue was shifted to Nabanna.

“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee does not want any delay in holding the Cabinet meeting. So to avoid any sort of confusion, the venue has been shifted to Nabanna,” a

senior official of the state secretariat said.