Union Minister of State for Urban Development and senior West Bengal Congress leader Deepa Dasmunsi was not allowed to visit Houlia More in violence-hit Tehatta on Friday by the Nadia district administration. One person died in police firing there earlier this week.
“It is a deliberate attempt by the Trinamool Congress to suppress the truth and is a reflection of total politicisation of the administration,” Ms. Dasmunsi told The Hindu after she was not allowed to visit the area. She, along with Congress MP from Jangipur Abhijit Mukherjee and other leaders of the State Congress, was stopped by the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police about 35 km from the place where the police firing occurred on Wednesday.
An altercation ensued between the Congress delegation and district officials as Ms. Dasmunsi demanded an explanation why she could not proceed when the administration was claiming that the situation was under control.
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“It was a people’s agitation and the administration had failed to control it. As representatives of the people, it would have helped if it [the administration] allowed at least four or five persons to go there,” she said.
The officials handed a document to the Congress delegation stating that prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC were in force within 1,000 metres of the site where the violence had occurred.
“But why were we turned back 35 km away from the site,” Ms. Dasmunsi questioned adding that the Trinamool had organised a rally during the day only one km away from the spot.
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“No action has been taken against the officer who fired on the locals and the locals are still being harassed by the police,” she said.
Alleging that imposition of prohibitory orders was only a pretext for preventing her from going to the area, she said the Trinamool government was behaving like the previous Left Front government that did not allow delegations from political parties to visit Singur and Nandigram when violence occurred there.
On Thursday, a delegation of MLAs from the Left Front and a delegation of the State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party were not allowed to visit the area.
A BJP delegation met Governor M.K. Narayanan late on Thursday evening and urged him to visit the area as political parties were not being allowed to go there.
While the Left Front called a 24-hour bandh in the Tehatta area during the day to protest against the police firing, the Congress observed “black day” and held meetings and a procession.