CM Mamata To Skip Today's All-party Meeting On Anti-lynching Bill And SC/ST Commission Bill

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will not be attending the all-party meeting called by WB Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar today to discuss the Prevention of Lynching Bill, 2019 and the Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Bill, 2019.

The governor has sought "guidance" and a "way forward" on the two bills which were passed by the Assembly on August 30 last year.

The meeting scheduled today at noon will take place at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata.

Dhankhar had tweeted on Monday, January 13, "@MamataOfficial. I have invited leaders of the Legislature Parties in the Legislative Assembly on 17.1.2020 at 12 noon at Raj Bhavan, Kolkata as regards pendency of West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill, 2019 and West Bengal State Commission for SC and ST Bill 2019,"

In a letter attached with the tweet, he had said, "As regards both the Bills, highest attention is being bestowed by me for their consideration at my end, essential inputs have been sought from the West Bengal legislative assembly as also the state government.

"In spite of repeated serious efforts at my end, the requisite information is not forthcoming and that has resulted in further appropriate consideration of the Bill in terms of the Constitution."

Soon after Dhankhar’s call for the meeting, CPI(M)'s Sujan Chakraborty had expressed his inability to attend the meeting due to a prior commitment.

Apart from Banerjee, the letter was forwarded to Mannan, Chakraborty, and leaders of the RSP, AIFB, CPI, GJM and the BJP.

"The step was being taken for this meeting as on one hand the inputs are not being made available and on the other hand, total factually untenable information is being put in public domain both at the level of the Assembly as also the state government," Dhankhar wrote on his Twitter handle.