Govt to send high-power team to West Bengal to assess situation
The Centre's decision to send its team is being viewed critically by Left circles in the state who feel the main objective to send the team is to embarrass the state government.
By Tamal Sengupta, ET Bureau |
KOLKATA: Barely 48 hours before the ruling Left Front in West Bengal unleashes its campaign for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Manmohan Singh government in Delhi has decided to send a high-power central team to the state on February 7 to assess the prevailing situation in the tribal districts of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura.The Front will launch its poll campaign at a huge rally at the Brigade Parade ground on Sunday.
While the central team will reach West Bengal on Saturday and head for Lalgarh and other pockets of West Midnapore district where a section of the tribal population is battling the state administration for over two months against police atrocities and underscoring the state government's failure to implement several schemes meant for their development.
The Centre's decision to send its team is being viewed critically by Left circles in the state who feel the main objective to send the team is to embarrass the state government. Though most Left leaders have refused to make any comments on the central team's visit, they are of the opinion that the UPA government is playing politics to land the Left Front in a tight spot before the coming parliamentary polls.
Bilateral relations of the CPIM and Congress leadership in Delhi had suffered a jolt after the CPIM top-brass had pulled the plug on the Manmohan Singh government. The Congress leadership in Delhi has not taken kindly to the CPIM's decision to withdraw support and inner circles within the Congress leadership strongly believe that the Marxists were determined to derail the UPA government.
The central team which will visit Lalgarh and other tribal areas include two senior officials from the Union government's rural development department, one senior official from the Planning Commission and one from the tribal development department.
However, the Congress leadership in Delhi has not reacted positively to Mamata Banerjee when she sought the PM's intervention into the happenings in Lalgarh a few months ago.
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The Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader in West Bengal Manas Bhunia claimed on Thursday that they had submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister on the Lalgarh development "in which we had clearly mentioned that the CPIM-led government in West Bengal has siphoned off the Central fund meant for the development of the tribal people . We also made it clear to the Prime Minister that the Left Front government did nothing for the tribal population during their 32 year regime.""We had also requested the Prime Minister to send a high power team in the tribal pockets of West Bengal to assess economic and living conditions of these people and the Prime Minister has accepted our plea and sending the team on Saturday," Mr Bhunia told newspersons at his Assembly chamber on Thursday.
Even though Mr Bhunia is known as among a few Congress leaders who don't want any electoral patch-up with Trinamool Congress at the cost of Congress' liquidation, the CLP leader on Thursday came down heavily on the chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as his police department had refused to offer any security to Mamata Banerjee during her visit to Lalgarh on Wednesday.
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