The West Bengal administration claims to have made all arrangements to foil the 12-hour bandh called by the BJP on Wednesday. To ensure that people take out their vehicles without any fear, the state government has come up with a comprehensive insurance policy wherein compensation amounting to a maximum of Rs 6 lakh would be provided in case of any damage caused to vehicles during the bandh.
The BJP has called a 12-hour shutdown in the state on Wednesday in protest against the deaths of two students allegedly in police firing at Islampur in North Dinjarpur district on September 20.
Home Secretary Atri Bhattacharya has written to the Railway ministry to ensure normal train services on Wednesday. Government has assured that all steps have been taken to ensure normalcy on Wednesday. It has asked shops, offices and all establishments along with educational institutes to function normally. It has also assured that adequate public transport facilities will be available on Wednesday. In fact, government will run additional buses during the bandh.
A notification making attendance mandatory on Tuesday, Wednesday and on 27 September has already been issued by the finance department. Ministers and MLAs have been asked to remain in their respective constituencies and personally monitor the streets from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
A control room has been set up in Nabanna to monitor the bandh across the state. The group of ministers would reach the state secretariat in the afternoon and hold a meeting after monitoring the situation. Consumer affairs minister Sadhan Pande said that there is no culture of bandhs in Bengal. Taking a dig at BJP leader Dilip Ghosh’s threats, Mr Pande said that it was unfortunate that a voter in his constituency has used such foul language.
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A senior police officer said that police personnel in adequate numbers would be deployed on the roads and police superintendents have been directed to take necessary measures to ensure law and order in their respective districts. Kolkata Police sources said that 4000 police personnel will be on duty on Wednesday.
The force will be under the command of 21 deputy commissioners and 70 additional commissioners.
The force will have 25 mobile vans and 25 Heavy Radio Flying Squads and RAF to swing into action should an emergency arise.
If commuters face any trouble on the road, they have been asked to inform police or administration. In case of vandalism, police would treat it as criminal offence and take necessary action. The state consumer affairs department will install complaint boxes at police stations and at some road crossings.
Both state-run government schools and private will remain open on Wednesday as per the government’s guidelines. After Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said on Tuesday at Nabanna that no schools and colleges will be shut on Wednesday, Burdwan University has revoked its notice postponing the examinations. They have issued a further notification to the students that all examination schedules will remain unchanged.
Mr Chatterjee said that the government had requested all school authorities to keep their institutions open but despite this, some schools declared it a non-working day. A few schools have decided to postpone examinations and to keep their schools shut. Mahadevi Birla World Academy and the junior section of Delhi Public School Rubi Park earlier decided to keep the schools shut. Three schools of Ashoke Hall group have postponed the examinations.
“Bandh will not affect the normal functioning of the school,” informed the spokesperson of South Point School. M P Birla Foundation Higher Secondary School has also informed that they will maintain normal classes.
Sashi Panja, minister of women and child development and social welfare, said: “Political parties call bandhs, schools and students have to suffer. They can’t decide whether to keep the school shut for child safety or to maintain government regulation of not responding to the bandhs.