West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar Calls All-Party Meeting To Discuss Lynching, SC/ST Bills

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has called an all-party meeting on January 17 at Raj Bhavan to discuss a couple of bills passed by the Mamata Banerjee government. The Governor has convened the meeting to get inputs from the leaders on two Bills- The West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill, 2019 and The West Bengal State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Bill, 2019. Moreover, Dhankhar is yet to sign both the bills.

Dhankhar has invited eight leaders of the legislature parties in state Assembly including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan (Congress) and Dr Sujan Chakraborty from Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M).

“In his communication to these eight leaders the Governor has given relevant details as regards the stalemate that has been occasioned for consideration of the Bills at his end," Manab Bandyopadhyay, Press Secretary to the Governor, said in a statement.

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His invitation for the all-party meeting comes amid intensifying bitterness between him and the Mamata government in state. The ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC) has been accusing the governor of hampering the development of West Bengal by delaying his consent on the bills.

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“These Bills are pending consideration with the Governor on account of there being no inputs available from the West Bengal Legislative Assembly as also the state government in spite of repeated serious efforts," the statement from Governor's Press Secretary adds.

According to the statement, the meeting has been convened as the inputs are not being made available and factually untenable information is being put in public domain both at the level of the Assembly as also the state government.

However, Governor Dhankar is within his legal rights to withhold consent to the Bill and he also has the option of sending the bill to centre for further consideration.