The Hindu : Trinamool boycotts Governor's speech

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 28, 2002

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Trinamool boycotts Governor's speech

By Our Special Correspondent

Kolkata FEB. 27. The Trinamool Congress today boycotted the Governor's speech on the first day of the budget session, saying it was ``full of untruths.'' The State's other Opposition party, the Congress, however, was present while the Governor, Viren J. Shah, delivered his address.

As soon as the Governor stood up to deliver his inaugural address, the Trinamool MLAs began disrupting it, demanding the release of its MLA from North Dinajpur, Karim Chowdhury.

In his speech, the Governor said ``the Left Front Government was concerned at the terrorist action resorted to by the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) in a few districts of North Bengal in the form of extortion, abduction of businessmen and killing of political leaders. However, the State Government taking firm and effective action against this militant and separatist outfit, the activities of the organisation have been controlled to a large extent.''

The administration, he said, was equally concerned over the heightened activities of the CPI-ML (People's War Group) and the MCC in certain forest areas of Midnapore West, Bankura and Purulia districts inhabited mostly by tribals and their attempts to forge a corridor from Andhra Pradesh through Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar joining the Maoist extremists of Nepal.

``The State Government's strategy for dealing with the situation, apart from stern police action, includes intensive development work for the benefit of the local population and emphasis on resumption of normal political activities by all political parties and this strategy is paying rich dividends.''

The Governor said that the investigation by a team of Government agencies into the abduction of a businessman in Kolkata and the recent killings of five police personnel in front of the American Center had unearthed a wide terrorist network, extending even beyond the frontiers of the country and exposed the presence of separatist and fundamentalist groups in the State, directly aided and abetted by the intelligence agency of a neighbourhood country.

The State Government, he said, had taken steps for upgrading the fire power of the police personnel, strengthening the intelligence set-up and organising intensive training for the police force.

According to him, the overall law and order situation in Bengal had remained peaceful. The Government was all along following a policy of dialogue with all the political parties to resolve contentious issues such as ``rail roko'' and ``rasta roko''. After a detailed discussion, the State Government had issued a notification requesting people to desist from organising ``rail roko'' and ``rasta roko'' and had directed the administration to deal with such obstruction to traffic on road or rail by enforcing the existing provisions of law so that the public were not put to hardship.

On the industrial resurgence of Bengal which figured high on the State Government's list of priorities, the Governor said during the period between 1991 and 2001, 545 projects involving an investment of Rs. 19,775 crores had been commissioned.

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