West Bengal speaker warns MLAs as mobiles ring during obituary

West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee on Friday warned of banning mobile phones in the House after a few devices rang when members were observing silence as a mark of respect to the MPs, MLAs and eminent citizens who died recently.

Expressing displeasure after mobile phones rang during observance of silence of two minutes, the speaker asked the offending MLAs to deposit the devices with him.

However, only one MLA went ahead and handed over his mobile phone to the speaker.

Banerjee then said that with a section of the members failing to comply with restrictions on the use of mobile phones inside the House during sessions, he would contemplate disallowing them from carrying the devices.

On the first day of the second phase of the Budget Session, the House paid their respects in obituary references to former Lok Sabha MPs Krishna Bose, Tapas Paul, former MLAs Brajagopal Niyogi, Parimal Ghosh and Binoy Dutta and footballer Ashok Chatterjee.

The House rose for the day following the obituary references.