West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra on Monday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde here to expedite the West Bengal Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishment Bill, 2013, so that it could be forwarded for Presidential assent.
"The home minister has agreed to my suggestion and assured that a consultative meeting will be held by the home ministry with the finance and law ministries to quickly review the Bill and put it up for Presidential assent. This will save precious time, instead of the bill going from one ministry to another," Mitra told Business Standard.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had dispatched Mitra along with the state Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra and Finance Secretary Harekrishna Dwivedi to Delhi to fast-track the process. In the wake of the Saradha scam, which has put the Trinamool Congress in a spot, the state government is now working over time to get the Centre to clear the Bill.
Mitra said that once the bill received Presidential assent, it would become law. The bill is expected to empower the state government as it has allegedly "more teeth" with six-seven new provisions being introduced relating to search, seizure and attachment of properties of the culprits.
The bill was passed by the state assembly on April 30. The bill has brought in substantive changes to an earlier bill of the former Left Front government that had been pending with former President Pratibha Patil but was not cleared.
President Pranab Mukherjee has already assured Mamata Banerjee that he would clear the bill at the earliest.
"The home minister has agreed to my suggestion and assured that a consultative meeting will be held by the home ministry with the finance and law ministries to quickly review the Bill and put it up for Presidential assent. This will save precious time, instead of the bill going from one ministry to another," Mitra told Business Standard.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had dispatched Mitra along with the state Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra and Finance Secretary Harekrishna Dwivedi to Delhi to fast-track the process. In the wake of the Saradha scam, which has put the Trinamool Congress in a spot, the state government is now working over time to get the Centre to clear the Bill.
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In fact, so keen was the Bengal government to not waste time that Mitra and the two bureaucrats met West Bengal governor M K Narayanan at the VIP lounge of the airport at Delhi last night, where he studied the bill for an hour and then signed it.
Mitra said that once the bill received Presidential assent, it would become law. The bill is expected to empower the state government as it has allegedly "more teeth" with six-seven new provisions being introduced relating to search, seizure and attachment of properties of the culprits.
The bill was passed by the state assembly on April 30. The bill has brought in substantive changes to an earlier bill of the former Left Front government that had been pending with former President Pratibha Patil but was not cleared.
President Pranab Mukherjee has already assured Mamata Banerjee that he would clear the bill at the earliest.