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Mamata demands Central fact-finding team to Lalgarh

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as well as a large delegation of 34 senior Congress leaders from the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) separately met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the Lalgarh issue and other matters at the Raj Bhavan on Saturday evening.

Ms. Banerjee pressed Dr. Singh to send a Central fact-finding team to Lalgarh. She also took up the issue of the problem being faced by nearly a lakh of students trained by the Primary Teachers Training Institute (PTTI), which is not recognised by the National Council of Technical Education. Following a court order the certificates given by these institutes in West Bengal are now invalid, placing the students in dire uncertainty.

Briefing reporters after the meeting with Pradesh Congress leaders Manas Bhunia and Pradip Bhattacharyya, senior leaders said Dr. Singh shared their concern about protecting Adivasi right and said there was a need to check the happenings at Lalgarh. The leaders requested Dr. Singh to send a high-power team from the National Scheduled Tribe Commission to study the prevailing situation in Lalgarh Police Station and take action accordingly. They claimed that Dr. Singh has had talks with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on this issue and he was keen on restoration of the rights of the Adivasis. The WBPCC delegation also took up the PTTI issue urging him to resolve the matter over which suicides had been committed. On the Darjeeling issue, the WBPCC leaders said they apprised Dr. Singh that ahead of the tripartite meet on the Gorkhaland issue, the State’s people should be apprised on the clear stand of the State government.

The issue of tea gardens in North Bengal also featured during the meeting. Dr. Singh’s help was sought to reopen the closed gardens.

The delegation urged Dr. Singh to intervene in the matter of the preparation of the BPL list in West Bengal. They said there was no monitoring either at the block or the district level to supervise the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the State.

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