West Bengal Governor to meet riot victims today, visit Murshidabad on Saturday

West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose left for Malda on Friday morning to meet the families who were impacted by the recent violence in Murshidabad and are currently staying at a government relief camp. Bose is expected to visit the violence-torn areas in Murshidabad on Saturday.

“The Governor left for Malda by train from Sealdah station around 9am. He will reach Malda town in the afternoon and is likely to visit a relief camp where some victim-families have put up. The Governor will stay in Malda and is expected to visit some of the riot-hit villages in Murshidabad on Saturday,” said a senior official of Raj Bhavan.

This comes a day after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee urged Bose to defer his visit to the riot-hit area by a few days.

“I would appeal to the Governor to wait for a few days more before visiting Murshidabad,” she said while speaking to the media at the state secretariat.

Communal clashes broke out in Samserganj and Suti area in Murshidabad district last week following protests over the Waqf (Amendment) Act. Three persons were killed. The Calcutta high court ordered deployment of central forces.

“Peace is returning to the villages. The state administration has taken up confidence-building measures. Even I could have gone there. Why am I not going there? I will go there at the right time. If I go now, permission has to be given to others too,” Banerjee had said.

Bose, however, told the media on Friday that “the request of the chief minister would be taken in all its seriousness”.

The Governor had met some of the riot-victims, who went to Raj Bhavan on Thursday.

Earlier on Friday, Bose had said: “I am going to the field to see for myself the realities of the field. I will have an objective view of the matter. The situation has been brought under control. We should take further steps to prevent similar instances in future. I will certainly visit Murshidabad...People from the area have requested to have a BSF camp there.”

Meanwhile the National Commission for Women (NCW) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) were also sending teams to Malda and Murshidabad.

NCW chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar arrived in Kolkata on Thursday. A four-member committee headed by Rahatkar is likely to visit Malda on Friday to meet some of the families which were displaced by last week’s communal clashes. The team is also likely to visit riot-hit areas in Murshidabad on Saturday.

“We came to know from media reports that women were tortured. We will go to the spot to see the situation,” Rahatkar told the media. A NHRC team also left for Malda early in the morning from Kolkata.

Senior IPS officers said that normalcy was gradually returning to the areas where communal clashes had erupted.

“Around 70% of the shops in Samserganj and Suti have reopened and there have been no reports of any clashes over the past four days. In all 274 people have been arrested till date in connection with the riots which erupted on Friday and Saturday. At least 85 people who fled to Malda have returned home. An eleven-member team led by DIG Murshidabad range has been set up to probe into the cases. In all 60 FIRs have been registered in connection with the riots,” Supratim Sarkar, additional director general of police (south Bengal), told the media on Thursday evening.