Opposition members walk out from Parliament panel meet

Opposition members of the parliamentary standing committee on Home walked out of a meeting on Thursday after their demand to discuss the situation in Manipur was denied by the panel chief sources saidAt the meeting to discuss prison reforms in Tamil Nadu Telangana and Andhra Pradesh TMCs Derek OBrien and Congress Digvijaya Singh and Pradip Bhattacharya submitted a joint letter to panel chairman Brijlal saying as committee members they cannot ignore the situation in Manipur the sources saidThe letter signed by all three MPs said that as members of the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs it is their moral and constitutional responsibility to discuss this matter with utmost urgency and the requited sincerityHaving been a senior police officer yourself you understand the gravity of the situation in the state Manipur needs healing and an end to the violence We as elected representatives cannot look away they saidThey further said that some of them had written to the Chairman last month requesting an urgent meeting of the Committee to discuss Manipur a demand which was not acceptedYou also informed us that this issue will not be taken up for discussion any time in July Sir it is your prerogative to fix the agenda of the meetingWe stand against such an evasion of responsibility to discuss an issue of national importance and are therefore choosing to walk out of the meeting they saidThe sources said the three are unlikely to attend the two other meetings that are scheduled this monthThey also said that before leaving the members also urged BJP MP Biplab Deb to walk out with them since he was from the NortheastEarlier too OBrien and Singh had written to Brijlal urging him to hold a meeting to discuss the situation in ManipurThe chairperson had informed both MPs separately about the inability to hold meetings urgently on the Manipur situation as three meetings on prison reforms have been scheduled for JulyA total of seven members including the chairman attended the meetingNearly 120 people have died and more than 3000 injured in the ethnic violence in Manipur since May 3This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever