Opposition members of JPC on Waqf Amendment Bill to boycott next round of meetings

Kolkata: Alleging high-handedness and arbitrary action of the chairman of the JPC on Waqf Amendment Bill, Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee on Thursday said opposition members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee will boycott the next round of meetings beginning November 9.

Banerjee, a member of the JPC on Waqf Amendment Bill, said the chairman of the JPC has fixed a hectic schedule of meetings in Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Patna and Lucknow over six days, with Sunday being a holiday in between.

All the opposition members of the JPC have decided to boycott the tour and its meetings as the chairman is working in an arbitrary and high-handed manner, Banerjee told reporters at a press conference jointly addressed with party MP Nadimul Haque at the Press Club here.

He said the future course of action will be decided jointly by the members of the opposition.

Banerjee said the opposition members of the JPC met the Lok Sabha Speaker on November 5 and sought deferment of the schedule and also reduction in the number of days of meetings of the JPC from two days a week to one day a week or two consecutive days every fortnight.

He said the Speaker had verbally agreed to sympathetically consider their demands and speak to the chairman, but nothing happened thereafter.