Mamata sets up panel to look into ‘anti-people’ Bills

Far from calling a truce over her opposition to key reform moves of the Centre, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is gearing up to stall proposed legislations that might be at variance with her party's line.

Mamata has formed a panel of MPs, headed by the party's leader in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhyay, to scan all proposed Bills and pick out anything that might be at odds with Trinamool's "pro-people" policies. Once the panel submits its findings, Mamata will chalk out the strategy on them in the Monsoon session of Parliament.

The party is eager to send out the message that support to the UPA in the Presidential election does not mean a compromise on her known stand on issues like price rise.

The panel does not include Trinamool's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, who is considered within the party an expert in legislative matters. It was Roy who had picked holes in the Lokpal Bill for his party.

Sources said Roy's omission was due to his rubbing Mamata the wrong way by turning up for Sonia Gandhi's lunch for UPA leaders on Saturday. Mamata later reportedly censured Roy for this in front of other leaders.

The panel will make sure the party is well prepared for the session and no Bill tabled in Parliament catches them by surprise. Union minister Mukul Roy, who is a member of the panel, said, "Whenever these (FDI in retail, privatisation of pension funds) will be brought in the form of Bills we will sit and decide. On issues which will hit the common man we will not budge from our stand." With PTI

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