Union minister of state for woman and child development Debashree Chowdhuri was on Friday allegedly prevented by Trinamul Congress supporters at Gosaba, in South 24 Parganas where she went to assess the extent of damage caused by Bulbul. TMC supporters greeted her with “go back” slogans when she arrived at the spot in Gosaba. Chowdhuri later said that she was in the district to enquire about the ground situation after the cyclone, which claimed at least nine lives and left behind a trail of destruction.

“I knew after arriving here I had to face the TMC supporters. And they would obstruct me to meet the affected persons. The agitators were all TMC activists,” she said. Shortly after she reached Gosaba, a group of TMC activists stopped her convoy and raised “go back” slogans. According to the sources, the agitators dispersed following police intervention. Condemning the incident, BJP state president and Member of Parliament, Dilip Ghosh today said that the TMC government was using “third degree” method whenever people were agitating against the government’s misrule and resorting to attacks and preventing Central Ministry from visiting the cycloneaffected areas.

Advertisement

“This all shows that chief minister Mamata Banerjee- led government is hiding facts from people so that its misdeeds don’t become public outrages,” he said. On Wednesday, Union minister Babul Supriyo had faced a similar protest during his visit to the district. Criticising the Mamata Banerjee-led party for engaging in “dirty politics” over his visit, Supriyo said he would submit a report on the groundlevel situation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also met people at Namkhana in South 24 Parganas, which was affected by cyclone Bulbul,after being prevented allegedly by the Trinamul Congress supporters. He said that many of them were yet to get relief materials from the state administration.

After arriving at Namkhana, Supriyo faced massive protests and was asked to go back by a group of people, allegedly TMC supporters, when he reached there to take a stock of the situation in Bulbul-hit areas. Yesterday, a fresh war of words erupted between the Bengal governor and the state government with Jagdeep Dhankhar, saying politics over distribution of relief in areas hit by Bulbul hurts democracy. The CM responded saying that a person occupying the gubernatorial post should not try to run a parallel administration. Dhankhar’s comment comes a day after BJP criticised the TMC government for politicising the relief work.