Mamata to visit Sandeshkhali on Dec 30 for first time since protests

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she would visit Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district on December 30 to chair a public distribution programme.

This would be her first visit to the island, situated on the borders of the Sundarbans, since the area witnessed large-scale protests earlier this year over alleged land-grabbing and sexual harassment of women by local TMC leaders.

“I will visit Sandeshkhali on December 30 to chair a public distribution programme. People had asked me before the elections whether I would visit Sandeshkhali or not. I had told them that I would be going later,” the CM told reporters at state secretariat Nabanna.

“This will be a government programme. We have completed several pending programmes under ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’, ‘Banglar Bari’ and other schemes. Around 20,000 beneficiaries of the area will be benefitted from various state-run schemes. I hope to hand over certificates of various schemes to around 100 people from the stage,” she added.

Banerjee said she would hold an administrative review meeting at Nabanna on January 2 next year and she would leave for Sagar Island on January 6 to review the preparations there for the annual Ganga Sagar Mela.

Upon her return, she would inaugurate an ‘e-vessel’ of the state transport department in Babughat area of Kolkata on January 8.

Banerjee had earlier said that she would visit Sandeshkhali only after winning the Lok Sabha elections.

In January this year, ED officers were assaulted and their vehicles damaged when they went to the residence of local TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan in Sandeshkhali to conduct a raid in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution scam.

Subsequently, several women of the area claimed that Shahjahan and his men have captured swathes of land and sexually harassed them.

The allegations prompted the opposition camp in the state to escalate its demand for immediate arrest of Shahjahan and his men.

The BJP, CPI(M), and the Congress alleged that the ruling TMC administration has been “giving protection” to Shahjahan and his men while some of the TMC leaders claimed false allegations were being levelled against Shahjahan by the opposition parties that had joined hands for the Lok Sabha elections.

Banerjee had said that “an incident was made to happen” in Sandeshkhali and blamed BJP for having “scripted” it, along with the ED and the media.

The TMC, however, suspended Shahjahan, who was arrested after a run for 55 days.

However, the protests failed to help BJP win Basirhat Lok Sabha seat, of which Sandeshkhali is a part, as its candidate and local woman Rekha Patra was humbled by TMC veteran Haji Nurul Islam by a mammoth margin.