Legislators of the Left Front walked out of the West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday in protest against the Speaker decision to guillotine the budgets of 31 departments – a parliamentary practice of passing budgets without holding any discussions on them.
They criticised the State government for avoiding discussions on important departments and left the House after Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay said that budget of the departments would be passed through guillotine.
Leader of the Opposition Surya Kanta Mishra said that “it was a guillotine of democracy.”
Of the 31 departments, six are being held by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Left Front MLAs alleged that Ms. Banerjee did not want discussions on important departments such as Land, Hill Affairs, Minority Development and Madrasah Education.
In August 2011 , the government passed budget of key departments including Panchayat and Home departments through a guillotine.
Government’s Chief Whip Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay told journalists that the budget session would end on July 6. He said Ms. Banerjee was likely to be present in the House on July 6 during discussion on a Bill related to quota on minorities in government jobs.
