LS COMMITTEE ON MANN SET TO MISS ITS DEADLINE AGAIN

NEW DELHI: With the monsoon session ending on Friday, the panel formed to probe MP Bhagwant Mann’s filming of the restricted access route into Parliament is yet to finish its investigations. The probe kept the AAP lawmaker out for virtually the entire session and committee sources say a majority wants it to end soon but the three BJP members, including chairman Kirit Somaiya, are delaying it.

The panel’s meeting is scheduled for August 23 because the BJP lawmakers have to be in their constituencies till then, even though the committee’s extended term ends on August 17. “We have till the 17th. I will speak with the members on the 16th when I return to Delhi and then request the Speaker for an extension,” Somaiya said.

The committee has three BJP lawmakers – Somaiya, Satyapal Singh and Meenakshi Lekhi – and six others. The party had instructed its lawmakers to fan out into their constituencies for the weeklong Tiranga yatra from August 15. “Our report cannot be completed because some work is left.”

The lone Congress member on the committee, KC Venugopal, said the probe on Mann should end immediately and the security recommendations can follow later.

The committee was asked by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to suggest action against Mann and recommend security measures to avoid repeat of such incidents.

Mann had shot a video of the secure access to Parliament and posted it online on July 21. The Speaker formed the committee on July 22 and advised him to not attend proceedings, pending probe.

The panel is divided on the action against Mann, sources said, with many members in favour of letting off Mann with a warning and treating his forced absence from Parliament as a suspension term. The BJP members, however, want to suggest harsher punishment. “Whatever they want to do, they should finish fast. They have deliberately kept me away... and no Punjab issue has been raised,” Mann charged.

THE MP SHOT A VIDEO OF THE SECURE ACCESS TO PARLIAMENT, POSTED IT ONLINE ON JULY 21, AFTER WHICH HE WAS KEPT AWAY FROM HOUSE