Amphan relief protests spread in south Bengal

Kolkata: A groundswell against corruption over Amphan relief distribution in south Bengal was witnessed a day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced at an all-party meeting on Wednesday that the government would not tolerate discrimination in relief distribution.

Villagers led by opposition parties mobbed panchayat members and staged protests in a repeat of the impromptu agitations over refund of “cut money” in south Bengal months before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Women beat up the Trinamool-run gram panchayat member’s son at Bongaon in North 24 Parganas, complaining that the member disbursed relief twice to a person by depriving genuine victims. CPM and Congress gave a representation to Amdanga police against corruption.

In Hooghly’s Nasibpur, villagers mobbed gram panchayat member Prodyot Ghosh’s house. They complained that relief went to two-storeyed house owners. Pradhan Dipali Santra said the panchayat had not finalised the beneficiaries’ list.

CPM’s Kanti Ganguly led the agitation at Namkhana in South 24 Parganas. “We are giving seven days to the government to include genuine cases. We will then block NH-117,” he said. Trinamool MLA Samir Chakrabarty said: “The party has shown the door to four gram panchayat members and taken action against the Purba Medinipur purto karmadhyaksha.”

Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said public unrest had unsettled Trinamool. “Didimoni ke ekshor niche namiye debo (We will pull the Trinamool tally below 100),” he said in Midnapore.

(With inputs from Falguni Banerjee, Sanjib Chakraborty, Suman Mandal and Sujoy Khanra)