Pending Bills: WB governor to meet Cong, CPI(M) next week;

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar will meet the leader of opposition in the Assembly Abdul Mannan and CPI(M) legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty next week to discuss matters over two pending Bills, a Raj Bhavan statement said here on Wednesday.

For other politicial parties including the ruling Trinamool Congress, the date for the meeting remained January 17, as decided earlier, it said.

Dhankhar on Monday had invited Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and leaders of legislature parties for a meeting on Friday to discuss matters related to West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill, 2019 and West Bengal State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Bill, 2019.

The first Bill seeks to check incidents of mob assault and lynching in the state, while the other will pave the way for setting up an SC/ST commission in the state. The Bills have been cleared by the Assembly on August 30 last year and are waiting for the governor's approval.

Both Chakraborty and Congress leader Mannan had informed Dhankhar of their inability to attend the meeting due to prior commitments on Friday.

The meeting will "take place for leader of opposition Abdul Manan and Dr Sujan Chakraborty on January 21, 2020 as they have intimated prior engagements outside state on this date and suggested for January 21, 2020. For others the meeting is as scheduled on January 17," the Raj Bhavan statement said.

Besides Mannan and Chakraborty, Dhankhar had also called leaders of the RSP, AIFB, CPI, GJM and the BJP at the meeting.