The West Bengal government has been left embarrassed after Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday confirmed that Union home minister P. Chidambaram had indeed sent a letter to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on the existence of the CPI(M) harmad camps in Jangalmahal. Adding to the woes of the state government which on Saturday had denied that they had received any such letter, Mr Mukherjee rallied support for his Cabinet colleague and sent the ball to the state government’s court. “The home minister has fulfilled his responsibility by writing the letter to the West Bengal government. Now it is the turn of the state government to fulfil its responsibility by acknowledging the receipt of the letter in reply. It is expected that the government will fulfil its responsibility,” said Mr Mukherjee to the mediapersons on the sidelines of a programme at Burnpur in Burdwan.
The veteran Congress leader also lambasted the ruling CPI(M) and the state government at a party workers’ meeting at Nabagram in Murshidabad. He claimed, “A jungleraj is going on in West Bengal. A Congress panchayat pradhan was brutally murdered at his office in broad daylight recently. Around 600 Congress workers have been killed in Murshidabad district in the last 34 years.”
He further alleged that the state government had failed in the rural development sector. Expressing deep anguish, Mr Mukherjee claimed that the construction of a rail bridge is yet to be completed at Mianpur in Jangipur as the state government has failed to allocate the land for its approach roads.
On the other hand, Left Front chairman Biman Bose on Sunday also said that the state had not received any such letter. Reacting to Mr Mukherjee’s comments, he said, “I have listened to what Pranabbabu has said. But the letter is yet to reach the state government. The government can reply only if it receives the letter.”
Mr Bose added, “Only those who have been left homeless due to the Maoist-Trinamul Congress terror are camping at the CPI(M) party offices in the Jangalmahal.” The Left Front chairman also asked the Trinamul Congress to prove the actual number of their activists killed in Jangalmahal by furnishing detailed evidence.