Closure of B.Ed colleges:Cong stages walkout

Kolkata, July 3 : Congress members of the West Bengal Assembly today staged a noisy walk-out from the House protesting against the Speaker's initial refusal to allow any statement from the Higher education minister on the closure of 36 B.Ed colleges.

Raising the issue immediately after the question hour Congress Chief whip Manas Bhunia asked Speaker Hasim Abdul Halim to seek a statement from Higher Education Minister Sudarshan Roy Choudhury.

But when the Speaker refused to allow any such satement, the entire Congress bench led by Mr Bhunia walked out of the House, shouting anti-government slogans and charging the state education misistry with 'unprofessionalism'.

However, after the Congress walk-out, when Opposition leader Partho Chatterjee of the All India Trinamool Congress raised the same issue, demanding a statement from Higher Education Minister, the Speaker allowed his plea and asked Dr Roy Choudhury to make a statement, which Dr Roy Choudhury did. This cleared the confusion on the issue and explained the stand of both the Centre and the state government.

UNI