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Left Front stifling protest movements: Mamata

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee has accused the West Bengal government of trying to stymie any protest movement in the State through the use of violence.

“Whenever there is any political, social or local problem, the cadres belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) are resorting to violence on women,” she said, addressing a rally of the West Bengal Trinamool Women’s Congress here on Thursday. Ms. Banerjee said the perpetrators were never punished and the police behaved like party cadres.

“Earlier, we regarded this as an exception but now it has become the norm,” she said, adding that anybody trying to organise protest movements were being framed on murder charges by the police.

Pointing out that around one crore people in the State are engaged in retail trade, Ms. Banerjee said that the government must take people into confidence before allowing big businesses in retail. “The government should not think that they could silence the protestors through the use of gun.” Ms. Banerjee also accused the State government of trying to deny its moral responsibility as far as price rise of essential commodities was concerned and passing on the blame to the Centre. Disputing the Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s claims that the State was attracting major investments, Ms. Banerjee referred to figures published by an English weekly that ranked the State as the 19th among the 20 big States in attracting investments.

She also said that her party would organise a protest march to Singur on September 25.

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