After maintaining silence over his removal from a committee constituted to monitor compliance of Covid-19 restrictions at Gangasagar Mela in Sagar Island, Opposition leader (LoP) Suvendu Adhikari broke his silence on Wednesday and called it “a fear factor as the ruling party in West Bengal scared of him”.
While addressing the media on the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda at 105, Simla Street (ancestral house of the monk), Adhikari, said, “I have nothing to say in this matter because it was decided by the High Court. But it is also true that the objection was raised by the State Government and not by the Court. Initially, the Court had appointed me and it means that they didn’t have any problem with my appointment. Actually, the ruling party is scared of me and that is why they have raised an objection before the High Court.”
Hitting out at the State Chief Minister, Adhikari said, “I respect this order from the High Court but I would like to tell Mamata Banerjee that appointments of ‘Information Commissioner’, ‘Lokayukta’, ‘Chairman of the Human Rights Commission’ is pending because the decision was taken alone by her and the Leader of the Opposition was not taken into confidence. As per our Constitution, she cannot make such appointments alone without keeping the Leader of the Opposition in confidence.”
On Mamata Banerjee’s standoff with the Centre over sharing credits of various development projects, he said, “In Tamil Nadu, there is a non-BJP government but despite that they have invited our Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate 10 hospitals today (virtually). It is unfortunate that Bengal doesn’t follow this courtesy despite 50% funding from the Central Government in various developmental projects.”
Suvendu’s statement (on State criticising the Centre) came after Mamata Banerjee, on January 7, while taking PM Modi head on at an inaugural function of the second campus of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute in Kolkata, claimed that the building was already inaugurated by her during the second wave of Covid-19.
Commenting on Suvendu’s remark, TMC MP Saugata Roy, said, “It is a fact that the State government objected to his appointment, but the final decision was taken by the Court. We felt that the Court has taken the right decision by not appointing a political person in the committee. The Court has appointed those who have knowledge of judiciary to monitor Covid-19 compliance at Gangasagar. We welcome the Court’s decision.”
On January 11, the Calcutta High Court dropped Suvendu Adhikari’s name from a three-member committee formed on January 7 to monitor compliance of Covid-19 restrictions at Gangasagar Mela.
The division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Kesang Doma Bhutia has instead reconstituted it to a two-member committee comprising former Justice Samapti Chatterjee and the member secretary of the West Bengal Legal Services Authority.
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