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Bengal Govt. to restrict rallies

By Our Special Correspondent

Kolkata Oct. 29. With a view to ensuring that the right to protest is not cause for public inconvenience, the West Bengal Government has prepared a list of proposals aimed at restricting processions and rallies in Kolkata. The proposals were laid out before leaders of different political parties by the Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, here today.

"We want a political consensus on the matter, thus the meeting. Give me some time [to enforce the restrictions]. Things will be finalised once I get a response to the proposals from the different political parties within a week," Mr. Bhattacharya said after the meeting.

He reiterated that the State would go ahead with its plans for greater industrialisation even though some quarters were bent on painting a negative picture of the State [by threatening to challenge any such restrictions].

It has been suggested that public rallies should be confined to certain parts of the city `maidan' and some major parks so that the movement of people or traffic was not disturbed. Processions would not be allowed to move along some of the city's arterial thoroughfares and would have to stick to one flank of the roads where the restrictions do not apply. Copies of the proposal would be sent to those parties which did not attend the meeting.

The Trinamool Congress, the main Opposition party in the State, abstained from the meeting saying that it had not been intimated beforehand about the details of the proposals. The SUCI, too, stayed away pointing out that any restriction on processions and rallies amounted to an infringement on the democratic right to protest.

The proposals were discussed at a meeting of the Left Front constituents here last Sunday. Among those present was the former Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu.

While the PCC general secretary, Manash Bhumiya, and the BJP State unit president, Tathagata Roy, agreed that processions should in no way disrupt normal life in the city, the latter said that prospective investors were shying away from the State as a consequence of such disruptions.

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