Digital Desk: The West Bengal Assembly session will begin two hours after midnight on March 7, according to a memo signed by Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and forwarded to the administration.
Tweeting the note, Dhankar wrote: "Assembly meeting after midnight at 2.00 A.M. is unusual and history of sorts in making, but that is Cabinet Decision."
It all started on February 17 when the state wrote a memo to the Governor proposing that an Assembly session be summoned on March 7 at 2 p.m. The suggestion, however, was returned "for constitutional compliance as the Governor summons the assembly on the recommendation made by the Cabinet after due compliance of Rules of Business under article 166(3) of the constitution," Jagdeep Dhankhar had earlier tweeted on February 19.
During the subsequent back-and-forth, a typo altered the time from 2 PM to 2 AM.
The Governor then phoned the Bengal Chief Secretary this afternoon to discuss the situation. "Finding the timing of session after midnight somewhat odd, an outreach effort was made by calling Chief Secretary for urgent consultations before noon today," Dhankhar tweeted.
But as the Chief Secretary failed to show up, Dhankhar called it an "usual compliance failure" as he tweeted his go-ahead to the cabinet proposal to call an Assembly session on March 7.
In response to the Governor's tweet, Bengal Speaker Viman Banerjee stated that '2 AM' was a typo that the Governor might have corrected. However, because he did not, the Assembly session will now begin after midnight. The timing on the first two notes issued by the state was 2 p.m. However, the error was made in later notes to the Governor, he added.
Mamata Banerjee called Governor Jagdeep Dhankar and told him that a new letter will be delivered after the Cabinet meeting on February 28.
If the West Bengal Assembly does start at 2 a.m., it will be a first for the country.
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