We will foil strike plan: Buddhadev

KOLKATA, JAN.4. The West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr.Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, today vowed to foil tomorrow's 12-hour State- wide strike called by the Trinamool Congress and warned of penal action against state government employees who failed to attend office.

Briefing reporters at the Writers' Buildings here, he said the government would foil any attempt to create disturbances.The police were asked to maintain strict vigil.

It was 'strange' that the strike had been called by the party which was 'responsible' for violence in Keshpur. The reason for the strike call was sheer frustration which had crept in the Trinamool congress.

Referring to his last public rally in Keshpur, the Chief Minister said there had been no disturbance then and peace had been returning there gradually in the last few months.

``This shows that Trinamool Congress is out to create political disturbances deliberately''.

Giving out figures, he said 11 CPI(M) supporters were injured and 11 houses damaged in yesterday's incident in Keshpur. Four Trinamool supporters also suffered injuries.

Condemning the ``Trinamool attack'' on the police, Mr.Bhattacharjee said the party's supporters who were carrying firearms attacked first. Further police personnel were injured and four jeeps damaged by Trinamool workers.

The CPI(M) State secretary, Mr. Anil Biswas, told reporters here that the Trinamool congress led by the Railway Minister, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, was ``out to bring back the politics of violence'' prior to the Assembly elections.``We will not allow such a situation to develop'', he asserted.

Describing the injury suffered by the Trinamool leader in alleged CPI(M) attacks as ``total bluff'', Mr. Biswas said ``it was, in fact, the Trinamool activists who attacked our workers at Keshpur leading to violence.''

Meanwhile, all nine front constituents in a joint statement called for ``frustrating any design'' to bring back the ``dark days of semi-fascist rule'' in the State.

Moral support by Cong.

The Congress extended ``moral support'' to the strike call and described as ``barbaric'' the alleged attack on Trinamool Congress activists by the CPI(M) at Keshpur.

There was no scope for opposing the strike as ``democratic rights of the people have been taken away by the Left Front Government,' the PCC leader, Mr. Pradip Bhattacharya, said during the party's State-wide law violation programme here.

The PCC chief, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, who courted arrest along with hundreds of workers, violating the law near the Raj Bhavan, came down heavily on Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharjee for his ``inept handling of the law and order situation and other sectors of the administration.''

``It appears that Mr. Bhattacharjee is behaving like Gautama Buddha descending from Kapilavastu, unaware of the state of affairs in the State although he was Minister in the Left Front Government for 19 years.''

Mr. Mukherjee was also critical of the Chief Minister's method of handling dacoity cases. ``He should know that the work of a Chief Minister and that of a police officer are different.''

The Congress' law violation programme was in protest against the `misrule' of the Front and ``breakdown of the law and order machinery,'' besides the ``anti-people policies'' of the NDA Government at the Centre.

BJP's total support

The BJP extended ``total'' support for the strike call and condemned the CPI(M) ``attacks'' on ``unarmed Trinamool workers''.

The BJP alleged that the CPI(M) had become ``panicky at the overwhelming mass support for the Trinamool Congress''. - PTI

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