Kolkata, March 25 (IANS) After the Election Commission of India (ECI), the central armed police forces (CAPF) have now come under a scathing attack from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who accused the central forces of acting as agents of the BJP in West Bengal, much like the Commission.
On Wednesday, the Chief Minister addressed three back-to-back rallies across North Bengal as a run-up to the two-phase assembly elections in the state next month. From one of the rallies, she raised allegations against the CAPF companies already deployed in the state.
She said that every vote against the BJP would be a piece of revenge against the ECI for causing inconvenience to the people through the special intensive revision.
She added that she had immense respect for the CAPF, but now she saw that in West Bengal they were acting as the BJP’s agents and even carrying the BJP’s flags.
“The women of West Bengal will have to take special initiative this time to protect the polling booths from morning on polling days. If you want peace in West Bengal for five years, you will have to protect the booths for a day and prevent outsiders from electoral manipulations. Come out on the streets with whatever you have at home,” the Chief Minister said.
She also launched a scathing attack against the Commission for transferring, replacing, and deputing bureaucrats and police officers from West Bengal to other states without giving prior intimation.
“I am an elected Chief Minister of West Bengal. But despite that, my officers have been transferred without my advance notice. Now, who will be taking responsibility for essential and emergency administrative activities in the state? Who will be providing food? Who will be handling natural disasters like floods or storms? The BJP is mistaken if they think of crushing me through such actions,” she said.
On the special intensive revision (SIR), she said it was a matter of shame that citizens of West Bengal were now being forced to submit proof of their citizenship after so many years.
She said the people from the tribal and backward class communities had been specially sent logical discrepancy notices, and she was sure that the NRC in West Bengal was next on the agenda.
“But as long as I am alive, I will not allow that to happen. I will not send a single person to the detention camp,” the Chief Minister said.
–IANS
src/dan
