Hummingbird News Desk
KOLKATA, 27 JULY: Amid the growing opposition demands for the removal of arrested West Bengal Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee from the cabinet, his official car, used by him for over 15 years, was on Tuesday deposited in the state Assembly, officials said.
Chatterjee, also secretary general of the ruling Trinamul Congress, was allotted the car and a driver by the Assembly as the Leader of the Opposition in 2006.
Chatterjee currently holds three parallel portfolios in the state cabinet — state commerce & industries minister, state parliamentary affairs minister and the state information technology and electronics minister.
By virtue of this ministerial portfolio, he was allotted the vehicle number WB 10-006 from the assembly secretariat. However, from Tuesday, state assembly sources confirmed that this particular vehicle stands withdrawn and brought back to the car-pool of the secretariat. “This has been done after the consent of the minister concerned,” said an official of the assembly secretariat on strict condition of anonymity.
Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee also confirmed the development but asserted that it does not “imply anything”.
“The car was taken from the pool of cars owned by the Assembly. The driver is also an employee of the Assembly. As Partha Chatterjee is in custody and is not using it, his driver has deposited it in the Assembly. I think the driver did it on his own, but still, I will check tomorrow,” he said.
Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on July 23 in connection with its investigation into the alleged teacher recruitment irregularities at government-sponsored and -aided schools.
He was the education minister when the alleged school jobs scam took place.
A woman, claimed to be Chatterjee’s close aide, was also arrested by the central agency after crores of rupees in cash were allegedly recovered from her residence.
State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury has urged West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee “to sack” Chatterjee from the cabinet immediately.
On Monday, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, demanded that Chatterjee be immediately removed as the state minister.
On Monday, Mamata Banerjee said that if anyone is found guilty of wrongdoing, he must be punished and asserted that she does not support corruption.
Meanwhile, Trinamul Congress’s daily party mouth piece in Bengali, Jago Bangla has stopped referring to Partha Chatterjee as the state minister or the party secretary general, since the time he had been arrested by ED. Wherever references are required for editorial purpose, he is being referred just as “Partha Chatterjee”.
Party insiders said that a decision on this count has been taken by the top leadership of the party. “The problem is that Chatterjee has irked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by giving her name and mobile number as the contact person to ED, which the agency officials have also mentioned in his arrest memo. So, for the time being he might not be stripped off his ministerial or party posts, but a distance will surely be maintained with him till he comes clean in the court,” said a senior Trinamul Congress leader, who did not wish to be named.
Tags: #ParthaChatterjee #OfficialVehicle #StateAssembly #SSCScam #MamataBanerjee
