The West Bengal Assembly on Thursday passed the Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2018, which will keep the chief minister out of its purview in matters relating to public order, PTI reported.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that recruitment of police, deployment of forces and any other emergency situations would be regarded as public order.

The bill, however, allows the Lokayukta to investigate matters relating to the chief minister on 58 other subjects under the state list, with the approval of two-thirds of the members of the Assembly present and voting.

Banerjee said a section of the media and Opposition parties were “spreading canards” that the chief minister has been kept out of the purview of the entire West Bengal Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill. “The people of this state will decide my credentials,” she said. “For me, the credentials are the biggest thing that a politician can possess. I have been elected by the people.”

The amendment in the West Bengal Lokayukta Act 2003, which was enacted by the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government, will also ensure that no public official is questioned without the state government’s approval, reported The Indian Express. This new provision is in line with Section 14 (1) (a) of Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013, which protects the prime minister from similar cases.

“This is outrageous and hilarious. Why is Mamata Banerjee, the ‘embodiment of honesty’, according to her acolytes, so afraid? Buddhababu wasn’t,” Left legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty had said, according to The Telegraph.