17 out of 61 days in House: Mamata plays truant

From May 30 to June 8,2011,the House functioned for eight days

Since her party came to power on May 20,2011,and out of the 61 days that the Assembly functioned after she became the Chief Minister,Mamata Banerjee has attended only 17 days and this includes her presence on Monday the last day of the present session.

From May 30 to June 8,2011,the House functioned for eight days and out of that Mamata came for only three. From August 10 to September 2,when the Assembly session went on for 14 days,Mamata attended two days. Between December 12 and 23 when the House met for 10 days,she managed to come for three days. This year between March 15 to April 2 the House was in session for 14 days and Mamata came to the Assembly for five days. And during the current session that went on for 15 days,starting on June 15 and ending on July 9,she came for three days. When she attends the Assembly on Monday,it would be her 17th day in the House.

Further,this year budget proposals pertaining to 31 departments,including six under Mamata,were passed without any debate. Mamata never took part in the Question Hour,and hence,the Opposition never got an opportunity to ask her questions regarding the eight departments under her.

Its a murder of democracy. Never in the parliamentary history of Bengal a chief minister has chosen to ignore the Assembly the way she is doing, alleged Suryakanta Mishra,the leader of Opposition in the Assembly.

The Trinamool Congress defended its CM. The state government is going through an acute crisis and the CM has to spend more time at the Writers Building. I am sure when we are in better days she will spend more time in the Assembly, said Shovon Dev Chattopadhyay,governments chief whip.

Political scientists have termed it as an undesirable trend. Chief ministers from Bidhan Chandra Roy to Siddhartha Shankar Ray to Jyoti Basu made it a point to attend the Assembly regularly. What she is doing is unwanted and undesirable for democracy, said Sabyasachi Basu Roychoudhury,head of political science department at the Rabindra Bharati University.

Mamatas predecessor and Left Front CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee used to answer questions related to his departments like home,information and culture,minority affairs,on Thursdays.