Bengal BJP upset over governor-Shah meet
After assuming office, West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar for the first time on Friday met Union home minister Amit Shah to apprise him of various issues of “governance” and the “worsening law and order situation” in the state. The meeting also reportedly discussed the possible violence in the upcoming civic polls, due to be held in April.
The meeting, held at the governor’s initiative, comes within a week of Mr
Shah’s visit to Kolkata, where at a rally he had expressed “concern” over the law and order situation in West Bengal.
The governor’s rushing to New Delhi to meet the home minister has apparently upset a section of BJP state unit leaders. They felt that the governor’s “daily interference in state politics“and his “running acrimony” with chief minister and Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee was “harming the BJP” in West Bengal. Some state unit leaders have reportedly conveyed their “displeasure”
over the governor’s role to the BJP high command.
It was pointed out that Ms Banerjee was indicating that since the BJP was “failing to make any dent in Bengal”, it was “using the governor”. Speaking from Kolkata, a senior party leader said: “The governor should remain silent. The fight is between the BJP and the Trinamul Congress, not between the governor and Mamata Banerjee”.
It may be recalled the governor had recently crossed swords with the TMC leadership over the forthcoming municipal elections. A few days back, state municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim was quoted as saying: “The governor should not be worried about any possible violence in the upcoming civic polls since law and order is a state issue. If as a person he feels deeply about crimes against human beings, then he should feel pained at the recent Delhi riots which took several human lives, while more dead bodies might be recovered.”
Hitting back, the governor issued a statement
WEST BENGAL BJP feels that the governor’s ‘daily interference in state politics’ and his ‘running acrimony’ with chief minister Mamata Banerjee is ‘harming the party’ in state
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday complained of lack of availability of medicines and masks to tackle the disease in the state. She informed that she would write a letter to the Centre for its supply in wake of the gravity of the outbreak of the disease. Warning against inflating prices of the medicines and masks, Ms Banerjee, also the health minister, ordered the police to check the pricing and availability of stock.
“The medicines and infrastructure equipments which we used to get from China are now stopped from entry here. The central government needs to ensure them so that we can get them. There should be no problem of medicines and equipments. Masks are also not available at many places. We are requesting the central government for them. I will also send a letter to the Centre in this regard,” Ms Banerjee said at the Nabanna after chairing a high-level meeting with the state and Central officials.
According to her, 6,800 personal protective equipment have been kept ready with masks at the Central medical stores. “1,541 travellers came here from 19 countries including China, Hong Kong and Japan. Among them 234 persons were kept under surveillance in isolation wards following their identification,” the CM added. “I am asking the police and different agencies to check the availability of essential medicines and masks and ensure no hoarding and aritificial scarcity.”