CM Banerjee to visit strife-hit Murshidabad in first week of May

Kolkata, April 22 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be visiting strife-hit Murshidabad district in the first week of May.

Murshidabad was on the boil earlier this month after protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Act turned violent, resulting in the deaths of three people.

Meanwhile, initiatives have already been started by the Murshidabad district administration to arrange for the rehabilitation of the affected and displaced people in the troubled pockets in the district.

The May visit was announced by the Chief Minister during her ongoing two-day tour to West Midnapore district on Tuesday.

“I will be visiting Murshidabad in the first week of May and after reaching there I will make all the necessary arrangements required there. Please have faith in me. To stand by the people is my duty. We do not want riots. Let peace be the path in Bengal,” the Chief Minister said on Tuesday afternoon.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister also said that there was a role of outsiders in instigating communal violence.

“We are determined to reveal the conspiracy of how these outsiders created trouble there in association with some local people,” the Chief Minister said.

Earlier in the month, when the communal violence was at its peak, the Chief Minister not only clarified why she was not visiting Murshidabad then but also requested Governor C.V. Ananda Bose to cancel his scheduled tour to the troubled pockets in the state.

“I am not going now since I want the situation to become normal there. Let the confidence among people get restored and only after that I will visit the place. I will also request the Governor to refrain from going to Murshidabad now,” the Chief Minister said earlier this month.

However, the Governor did not honour the request and visited the troubled pockets in Murshidabad last week and interacted with the affected people there.

The Governor also visited a temporary relief camp at the Murshidabad-adjacent Malda district, where the displaced people from Murshidabad were housed then.

--IANS

src/rad