Mamata has fear psychosis, says opposition

Kolkata, June 29 (IANS) Opposition legislators Friday staged a noisy walkout from the West Bengal assembly, protesting against the exclusion of some questions from the day's business slated to be answered by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Speaking to the media later, the leader of the opposition, Surjya Kant Mishra, accused Banerjee of being afraid of replying to questions concerning her departments.

"I don't know who is controlling the speaker. It has been about 13 months since the chief minister orally replied to questions raised in the house. She is afraid to do so," Mishra said.

He added that Banerjee had a lot of time to answer queries and important questions relating to her department.

"We were told that she needed more time to go through the questions. I don't know how she will overcome this fear psychosis," Mishra said.

After the house convened for the day, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) member Subhas Naskar pointed out that the six questions relating to the home and health departments were excluded from the day's business and demanded the speaker's intervention to include them.

The assembly witnessed bedlam after slogan-shouting opposition members stormed towards the speaker. Transport Minister Madan Mitra's reply to a question could hardly be heard.

Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay said there had been instances during the previous Left Front government when as many as 14 questions scheduled for a particular day were excluded from that day's business.

Ten minutes later, the opposition members walked out of the house.