Calcutta, June 16: The Assembly today passed the minority affairs budget in the absence of both its cabinet minister and minister of state and passed the sports and transport department budgets with no mention of their minister, Madan Mitra, both of which were termed "unprecedented" by the Opposition.

The budget of the minority affairs and madarsa education department, which is headed by chief minister Mamata Banerjee and minister of state Giasuddin Molla, was moved by urban development and municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim, who also replied to the discussion on the budget speech.

While Mamata is on a five-day administrative tour of north Bengal, the formal reason for Molla's absence was illness, according to a letter he sent to the Speaker's office.

"My blood sugar level has risen, which is why I am resting at home," Molla said later.

Trinamul sources, however, said Molla, the MLA from Mograhat West in South 24-Parganas, was "busy" with a football tournament in his constituency, which was the real reason behind his absence.

Congress MLA Manas Bhuniya, who has been a legislator for over three decades, said this was the "first time in the history of the Assembly" that a department's budget had been passed in the absence of both the cabinet minister and the minister of state.

BJP MLA Samik Bhattacharya said: "This is a blatant disregard by the ruling party of parliamentary democracy, its procedure and conventions.... There was nothing relevant to the department in Hakim's reply during the discussion."

The two ministers' skipping the minority affairs budget came on a day the West Bengal Minority Commission chairman expressed his dissatisfaction with the government for falling "way behind" the welfare schemes targets for the minorities.

"I am dissatisfied with the non-performance of various government departments in the implementation of welfare schemes for the minorities," Intaj Ali Shah said after chairing a meeting with Burdwan officials.

The Opposition Left, Congress and BJP strongly objected to the absence of the minister's name in the budget speech documents of the sports and transport departments by staging a walkout. The minister-in-charge, Mitra, is in the CBI's custody in connection with the Saradha scam.

The decision to guillotine - a technical term in legislative parlance referring to the passing of a budget without discussion - the budgets of the two departments had met with resistance and criticism from the Opposition.

The Congress and the Left had alleged that the government guillotined the budgets to avoid possible awkwardness and embarrassment during the discussion, where Mitra's name was bound to feature.

Although the government is yet to formally replace Mitra, the chief minister has "informally" handed over the responsibility of the departments to housing minister Aroop Biswas.

"The budget documents do not even have the minister's name, though he has not been officially relieved of the departments. We have run our checks and state this with absolute certainty that this is unprecedented in the history of parliamentary democracy in India," CPM MLA Anisur Rahman said.

Speaker Biman Banerjee said the omission of the minister's name from the budget documents was "an inadvertent, undesirable mistake". "It should not have taken place," he said.