More than 200 families of Batanal gram panchayat in Arambagh who supported an Independent candidate during the three-tier panchayat elections are now panicking because of alleged harassment by goons said to be backed by the Trinamul Congress. The affected families alleged that the goons are preventing them from going to the market, not allowing them to collect drinking water, and not allowing their children to attend schools.

The families previously were supporters of the Trinamul Congress, but refused to support the candidate selected by the party this time round since they felt the candidate was not an appropriate one. According, they supported the Independent candidate, who was declared victorious. “To teach us a lesson the TMC-backed goons have kept us confined.

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We are not allowed to go to the market to buy food and other necessities, we are not allowed to collect water, our children on the way to school are told to go back home, they are also threatened. Some of us tried to find a way to go to the market place but we were attacked and badly thrashed.The administration and the police are aware of the harassment carried out by TMC goons but they don’t care,” said a member of one of the families.

The TMC local leadership refused to speak on the issue. The local BJP, meanwhile, is at present not ready to comment on the matter but is keeping a watch over the situation. “More than 200 families are crying desperately for helo. The aged and the children are the most affected, they are facing scracity of food and drinking water.

Oolitics have reached to such a low that citizens are losing their dignity and their constitutional rights,” said another of the affected people.