Mamata not to allow political interference into administrative jobs

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee gave a clear indication on Thursday that the drive against illegal arms recovery across the state will continue and there will be no political interference coming in the way of the police and administration doing their job.

"The law will take its own course regarding recovery of arms. I will never allow any political interference in the job that is being carried out by the administration, which has to do its own job about arms recovery," the chief minister said. This may have been an oblique reference to the recent recovery of firearms near the house of CPIM leader and former minister Sushanta Ghosh in West Midnapore district.

"I shall not allow my own party too to interfere in the police’s job, and I have therefore asked all my party leaders not to take the law in their own hands," the chief minister said.

Mamata, on the other hand, wondered how such a huge cache of arms and ammunition could be found from near Ghosh’s house. "Such huge volumes of arms and ammunition are generally used in war," she said.

She said : "I don’t belong to the CPIM and I think that those who do wrong and those who tolerate wrongdoing are the same." Asked whether her government had received any letter from Ghosh regarding tightening of his security, the chief minister said "we have not received any such letter from anybody."

The CPIM is now in a tight spot after the West Midnapore police have recovered arms from near Ghosh’s house. The party is nervous as the police is carrying out the arms recovery process on a daily basis and most of these illegal arms are being found from near the houses of CPIM leaders and their party offices. The CPIM is now trying to give an impression that their activists are being implicated falsely in several cases of arms recovery and the police is also being guided by the Trinamool Congress activists in finding arms and ammunition.

CPIM leader and former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had also raised questions about the recent arms recovery and pointed out why the Trinamool leaders are guiding the police in spotting arms.