Speaker asks legislators to regularly attend standing committee meets

KOLKATA: Speaker Biman Banerjee on Thursday expressed displeasure over legislators not attending meetings of the Assembly standing committees and urged them to be present regularly in them.

Banerjee, who had on previous occasions criticised the legislators for not being regular when the House is in session, said he has noticed that some legislators sign the attendance sheet of the standing committee meetings to avail the allowances but do not attend it.

"This is unacceptable ... The standing committee meetings are held to discuss and deliberate important issues and policies. But this has not been done. I request all legislators to attend these meetings", he said.According to the norms of the Assembly, a legislator is allotted membership of two committees— a departmental standing committee and a committee of the House. Reacting to the Speaker's comment, the state Parliamentary Affairs Minister said it is the opposition BJP MLAs who do not attend the standing meetings on most of the occasions and the Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari (BJP) must look into it.