By IANS,
New Delhi : During the customary obituary references in the Lok Sabha Thursday the names of two former members, Communist leaders Bhogendra Jha and E. Balanandan who passed away last month, failed to find place as the speaker’s office did not receive official confirmation from the concerned district magistrates.
The house had convened after the presidential address of the joint session of parliament to pay tributes to deceased members, including former president R. Venkataraman, Chaudhari Ranbir Singh, the lone surviving member of the Constituent Assembly of India and the father of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and Periasamy Thiagarajan, who represented Sivaganga constituency in Tamil Nadu during 1977-79.
The house adjourned for the day after the obituary references by Speaker Somnath Chatterjee Thursday.
“It is not a miss. We know that the two great leaders (Balanandan and Jha) have died during this period. But we did not receive the official confirmation (about the demise) even after writing to the concerned district magistrates,” said V.K. Sharma, additional secretary, Lok Sabha secretariat.
“We have prepared the obituary references of the two leaders. A one line confirmation from the district magistrates is needed,” he told IANS.
E. Balanandan, who was a member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo for a quarter of a century died of cancer in a hospital in Kochi on Jan 19.
Chatterjee, who also worked together with his old comrade in Lok Sabha, had deeply mourned the passing away of the veteran Marxist.
In a condolence message Chatterjee had said Balanandan served the party and the people and particularly the working class with great dedication and commitment and made signal contribution towards the consolidation of democratic forces in our country.
“I had the great opportunity of working with him on different occasions and I have always been greatly impressed by his sincerity and concern for the working people and the suffering humanity,” the Lok Sabha speaker had said.
Balanandan represented Mukundapuram Lok Sabha constituency during 1980-84 period.
Bhogendra Jha, who passed away here on Jan 20, was one of the prominent leaders of the Communist Party of India (CPI). He represented Madhubani in the Lok Sabha for five terms.