Kolkata: At a time when relations have soured with its ally over the presidential polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday accused Communist Party of India (Marxist) of trying to drive a wedge between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress and said that her party would not fall into the trap.
Amidst repeated interruptions while replying to the debate on the budgetary demands for grants for the Home department in the Assembly, Mamata said that Trinamool Congress would not fall into the trap laid by the CPI(M).
Urging the Trinamool Congress and the Congress members not to heed the insinuations of the CPI(M), Mamata said that the Home budget had to be increased by 10 per cent because of rising prices.
Mamata's remark that prices were increasing while the rupee was depreciating made a CPI(M) member to ask her what her party-supported government at the Centre was doing. At this the Chief Minister told the member to ask his party's 'friends' about it.
This led to sharp exchanges between the ruling Trinamool Congress and opposition benches. As Speaker Biman Banerjee tried to restore calm, the Chief Minister requested him to suspend members, even those from her party, if they tried to disrupt the proceedings.
Congress members praised the budget saying that during the present regime the police were playing a neutral role unlike during the previous Left front regime.
Congress member Manoj Chakraborty, who had resigned as minister of state for food processing earlier this year following differences with the Chief Minister, however, asked her why police officials who had briefed her wrongly about the Park Street rape case had not been punished.
Mamata said that the state government required funds for modernisation of the police force and its infrastructure. The Chief Minister said that Rs 262 crore was spent on creating four commissionerates in the state.
She said 7,000 personnel have been recruited into the police and a total of 40,000 would be recruited, including 30,000 constables as part of the restructuring of the police force.
Claiming that not a single political killing was reported from junglemahal where her government was determined to restore peace, Mamata said that there was significant improvement with 231 leftwing extremist arrested and 20 surrendered. Giving statistics, the chief minister said that there were 32 incidents of police firing in 2010, 14 in 2011 and only one during this year.
On political killings, Mamata said that taking into account the five month period of Left Front regime in 2011, 27 CPI(M) workers and 35 Trinamool Congress workers were killed. Four Trinamool Congress workers lost their lives in political violence so far this year.
She said that 46 political prisoners have been freed from jail since her government took office and 20 lifers would also be released after the completion of legal process.
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