Trinamool stages walk-out for 7th consecutive day

Kolkata, Mar 23: All India Trinamool Congress MLAs today staged yet another noisy walk-out from the House for the entire day protesting against the Speaker's refusal to hold discussions on the Nandigram carnage severely affecting the Assembly procedure for the seventh day in succession.

As soon as the House assembled for the day to transact a number of important business, all the Trinamool Congress members trouped into the well and prevented the Speaker from conducting the question hour of the House.

Shouting anti-government slogans and demanding explanation from Speaker Hasim Abdul Halim about his reported statements yesterday, in which he allegedly critisised Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi for his statement on Nandigram police firing and the role of the judiciary on the same issue, the Trinamool members continued their protest.

However, when that failed to detract the Speaker from continuing the House proceedings amid shouting of slogans, Trinamool Congress members walked-out of the House for the entire day.

Later, speaking to UNI in his chamber, Opposition leader Partha Chatterjee lambasting the Speaker for his alleged stand, charged him of being partisan and favouring the ruling party.

He said he was allegedly trying to hush-up the Nandigram issue by disallowing the Opposition members from raising the issue inside the House.

''We would continue our protests till we are allowed to speak on the Nandigram firing,'' Mr Chatterjee said and reiterated his party's stand to try to stall the House proceedings during the current session which is likely to continue till the first week of April.

Incidentally, all the 30 TMC members are virtually boycotting the ongoing budget session of the state assembly by staging noisy walkouts every morning since the House began earlier this month.

UNI