Kolkata : The West Bengal government faced yet another major embarrassment on Thursday after a sitting senior legislator of the party and a former member in the Mamata Banerjee-led cabinet appealed for a higher security cover because of constant life-threats that he is receiving in his own constituency.
Shyamal Mondal, the ruling party MLA from Basanti Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district, has made a written application to the office of the district police superintendent for this higher security.
On Thursday, Mondal told mediapersons that he had been receiving life threats since he had been vocal about police actions against individuals involved in illegal activities like extortion in different localities in his constituency. Mandal is a former state Sunderban affairs and irrigation & waterways minister.
“Whenever I have witnessed illegal activities in my constituency I have protested. Recently, I complained to the local police against a group of extortionists in the locality who are also involved in other illegal activities. Since then, I had been receiving life threats. As an elected legislator I have to move around in different places within my constituency. But after these threats I’m feeling helpless and hence I approached the police for higher security cover,” Mondal said on Thursday.
He also said that after a recent blast at Fulmalancha village panchayat under Basanti where one person was killed, he had a public meeting there, where he requested all concerned to surrender the illegal firearms and explosives in the possessions. “But till date there had not been a single surrender on this count,” he said.
Meanwhile, political debates have already started over the issue. The BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said that when the legislator of a ruling party, who is also a former state minister, feels helpless because of life-threat, then it is easily imaginable how pathetic is the law & order situation in the state.
Trinamool Congress’s state vice-president, Jaiprakash Majumdar said that BJP leaders do not have the moral right to speak on such issues considering the fact their own leaders in BJP- ruled stated always move with a large number of security personnel.
–IANS