December 3, 2010
Bengal should ask for Central rule: TMC
Incensed by the Bengal government’s suggestion that it will ask the Union home ministry to handle Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s personal security, her party on Thursday said the Left Front should ask for central rule in the state. Reacting to media reports that the state government is unable to deal with complaints that Mamata is not being given proper security cover and she feels threatened, Trinamool leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay on Thursday said, “if the Centre takes responsibility of the security of Mamata then let the total law and order be taken over by the Centre to protect the lives of common people.†Alleging that the law and order situation in the state is such that “on an average six persons are being killed every day in Bengal,†Bandyopadhyay lashed out at the state government and the ruling CPM saying, “it is disgracefulâ€. “Giving protection to Mamata is the responsibility of the state government. It has no right to pass it on to the Centre. Law and order is a state subject. How can the Centre take responsibility of Mamata’s security? It proves that it has failed in maintaining law and order. It can even lead to an attempt to eliminate Mamata Banerjee, what is a declared strategy of the government of West Bengal and the ruling CPM.†Bandyopadhyay also narrated an incident when home minister P Chidambaram has complained about not getting a response from the Bengal government whenever he has tried to communicate to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on the issue of serious law and order problems. Even the last time when Bandyopadhyay and other Trinamool MPs met the Union home minister over violence in Khejuri in East Midnapore, “the state’s DGP and ADG could not be contacted over phone for six hours and finally the officials had to talk to the district magistrate and SP, with regard to the incidentâ€.
Courtesy: The Times of India
