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National

National

"Speaker protecting Buddhadeb"

Special Correspondent

Kolkata: The Speaker of the West Bengal Assembly adjourned the House for more than an hour on Thursday after pandemonium broke out with Opposition legislators demanding Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's resignation over the March 14 Nandigram firing.

As soon as the House convened for the day there were noisy scenes in the House when Trinamool Congress members, carrying placards, raised slogans condemning the firing. They moved in circles in the well of the House disrupting question hour. Congress legislators also raised slogans against the Chief Minister.

When attempts to conduct the proceedings failed, Speaker H.A. Halim adjourned the House.

Trinamool Congress legislators then decided to boycott the House for the rest of the day.

Later, leaders of both the Trinamool Congress and the Congress decided to move a no-trust motion against the Speaker for adjourning the House — a move, they alleged, which had been aimed at "protecting the Chief Minister."

This charge was levelled inside the House by leader of the Congress Legislature Party Manas Bhuniya when it was convened in the afternoon. He alleged that by adjourning the House earlier in the day the Speaker was trying "to protect the Chief Minister" from answering questions that had been slated for the day's business.

No alternative

Mr. Halim said he had no alternative but to adjourn the House given the situation inside then. "Never has it been my intention to protect anyone. We function in accordance with our procedures," he said, adding that the rules did not allow any discussion on the Nandigram issue as the matter is in the Calcutta High Court which had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to inquire into the police firing.

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