Kolkata, July 3 (IANS). Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday participated in a two-day orientation program organized for newly elected MLAs in the West Bengal Assembly in Kolkata. During this, the Chief Minister assured the opposition MLAs of giving more democratic opportunities. He also said that during the previous rule of Trinamool Congress, the opposition was not able to get such a democratic space.
The Chief Minister said, “First of all, during the 34 years of Left Front rule from 1977 to 2011, most of the work was conducted from the office of the ruling party. After this, it is not appropriate to say much about the last 15 years (2011 to 2026). It is not right to talk negatively about the state, but in the previous government, opposition MLAs were not respected. Block Development Officers and officers in-charge of police stations also treated opposition MLAs. “Only ruling party MLAs were invited to public functions. I was the opposition leader for five years, but I was not invited to any function.”
He said that in the first two months of his tenure as the new and ninth Chief Minister of West Bengal, he had tried to change the previous system of limiting the democratic scope of opposition MLAs.
The Chief Minister said, “Now the situation has changed. People have changed. In the last one and a half months, I have held five administrative meetings, in which MLAs from both the ruling and opposition parties were invited. I have also included the opposition in the budget process. This is because I believe that we have to develop the state together.”
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister criticized both the Left Front and Trinamool Congress governments for following the archaic system of conducting Assembly proceedings and refraining from adopting modern communication technologies.
He said, “We need to increase the popularity of our MLAs, whether they are in power or from the opposition. Voting here is still done on paper. There is no electronic system. The infrastructure of the assembly needs to be fixed. This is essential for the welfare of the public. We should work with the public and not with the party. West Bengal will once again lead the country. Let us hope for it and work for it.”
–IANS
SHK/VC
