5 months ago
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The report of the Ethics Committee, recommending the expulsion of Trinamool Congress member Mahua Moitra in an alleged “cash-for-query” case, will be tabled in the Lok Sabha on December 8.
The report was earlier listed in Lok Sabha agenda last Monday but it was not tabled.
“The Speaker informed me that the Ethics Committee Report along with a resolution will be tabled tomorrow,” Trinamool leader in the Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, confirmed to reporters.
“Then, I told the Speaker that you have to give us time to speak as every party of the INDIA bloc has opposed it and would want to speak. Though he heard me out, he conveyed a sense that the Chair wants to wrap up everything within 30 minutes,” the Trinamool leader added.
All the major political parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress, and the Trinamool have issued whips for its members to be present in the House. Once tabled, the Lok Sabha Speaker takes up a resolution and gets the sense of the House and goes by the majority opinion.
Opposition members have insisted that there should be a discussion on the recommendations before a decision is taken on Ms. Moitra. “If the report is tabled, we would insist on a full-fledged discussion as the draft was adopted in two-and-a-half minutes,” Bahujan Samaj Party MP Danish Ali, a member of the Ethics Committee who had submitted a dissenting note, said.
At a meeting on November 9, the Ethics Committee, headed by BJP’s Vinod Kumar Sonkar, adopted the report that recommended Ms. Moitra’s expulsion from the lower house.
Six members of the panel, including suspended Congress MP Preneet Kaur supported the report, while four members of the panel belonging to Opposition parties gave dissent notes.
