New Delhi : TMC MP and member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Waqf (Amendment) Bill Kalyan Banerjee on Thursday declared that opposition members of the panel will boycott the next round of meetings of the panel beginning November 9.
He said the decision was based on the conduct of the chairman of the JPC, veteran BJP MP Jagdambika Pal, whom the TMC parliamentarian accused of acting in an arbitrary manner and displaying high-handed attitude, according to news agency PTI.
Banerjee reportedly said that the JPC chief has fixed a hectic line-up of meetings in Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Patna and Lucknow over a period of six days, with Sunday being a holiday in between. He made the remarks while addressing a press conference in Kolkata, jointly with TMC Rajya Sabha MP Nadimul Haque.
Banerjee further said the Opposition members of the JPC had even sought deferrment of the schedule during a meeting with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, as per PTI’s report.
The TMC MP said the delegation had also sought reduction in the frequency of the panel’s meeting, from two days a week to one day a week or two consecutive days every fortnight, as per PTI. Banerjee said though Birla verbally agreed to sympathetically consider their demands and speak to the JPC chairman, nothing happened afterwards, the report said.
