TMC MP looks for his own question in Lok Sabha

NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress member Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of party chief Mamata Banerjee, was caught completely unprepared on Tuesday to ask his own written question in the House.

It was listed as a ‘starred’ question jointly in his name along with TRS member K Kavitha. Answer to a ‘starred’ question is given orally on the floor of the House during the Question Hour, if time permits.

Since Kavitha was not present inside the House at that time, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan called out Abhishek’s name for asking the question. He, however, appeared clueless, prompting the Speaker to tell him: “Your question has come. Leave it if you forgot.”

Senior TMC members - Sugata Bose and Saugata Roy - came to his rescue. They were seen showing him the listed question and even guiding him how to ask supplementary when the Union minister of state for heavy industries Babul Supriyo laid the answer, evoking laughter among members on the treasury bench.

His question was related to setting up centres of excellence for technological development and its state-wise location in the country.

Before answering Banerjee’s supplementary, Supriyo said, “First of all, I would really want to thank our learned senior member, Saugata Roy, for doing the necessary thing to remind him about the question that has been asked.”

Responding to the question, he said the government has, so far, approved setting up of eight centres of excellence for enhancement of competitiveness in the capital goods sector.

The approved centres of excellence will be located at IIT Madras, Chennai; Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI), Bangalore; PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore; IIT Kharagpur, West Bengal; Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC), Ranchi; SiTarc, Coimbatore; IISc, Bangalore and IIT, Delhi.