Kolkata, Apr 17 (PTI) Members of Bangla Pokkho, a pro-Bengali advocacy organisation, held protests across the state on Friday against the BJP-led Centre’s alleged bid to implement delimitation proposals in some of the BJP-ruled states.
Bangla Pokkho general secretary Garga Chatterjee said the organisation will oppose the delimitation bill’s “evil intent” and continue to stage protests in the coming days as well.
However, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to tweak the women’s quota law was defeated in the Lok Sabha on Friday evening.
Following this, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju conveyed to the Speaker that the government has no intention to move ahead with the two other bills — the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill — as both the legislations were interlinked with the Constitution Amendment Bill.
Earlier, hundreds of members of Bangla Pokkho waved black flags and burnt copies of the delimitation bill in Kolkata and three districts — Hooghly, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas on Friday.
Chatterjee said, “We will not accept anything that decreases the percentage of parliamentary seats of West Bengal… The BJP is playing with fire and is threatening the unity and sovereignty of India”.
Similar protests were held on Thursday across the state, he said. PTI SUS NN NN
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