Kolkata, June 16 (IANS): Railways Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Tuesday termed the law and order situation in West Bengal as "dreadful" and asked the administration to speed up the process of securing illegal arms from areas that have witnsessed political violence.
"I would like to ask the home secretary to free those people who have been imprisoned following false allegations made by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and to book those people under the Arms Act from whose houses arms have been recovered," Banerjee told reporters at a press meet in her residence.
"We would like to request the central government agencies to seize all these arms and ammunitions immediately," she said.
She alleged that the state's Left Front government was carrying out atrocities in the villages. "CPI-M cadres have gutted houses and killed a small child. They are setting ablaze villages of minorities and the schedule castes. We don't do politics of murders. We are opposed to itm," she said.
Referring to the torching of a CPI-M party office at Dharampur in Lalgarh of West Midnapore district Monday allegedly by activists of a tribal body, Banerjee said: "I don't support that. It is our collective duty to maintain law and order.
"In any administration, law and order should be maintained properly. We are in favour of peace. We are for development. Had the CPI-M been in our place, they would not have said the same thing. They would have instigated violence," she alleged.
Dwelling on the causes of the political violence, which has rocked the state in recent weeks, Banerjee said years of CPI-M atrocities have led to a situation where law and order seems to have turned for the worse.
"For years, there were allegations against the CPI-M of atrocities, including rape and infringement of people's fundamental rights, but no action was taken against the culprits.
"Now things have reached such a stage that law and order has gone to the dogs," she said.
"The situation prevailing now is dreadful and a cause of concern," she remarked.
She warned that she could not control her people all the time. "It is not proper if the onus is always on us to restore peace, while they (CPI-M) always indulge in violence."
She expressed her gratitude towards her party men who earlier Tuesday lifted the two-day-old siege of the police station in Khejuri in West Midnapore district. The Trinamool activists also said they would search houses of CPI-M leaders to unearth arms.
"There is no point boycotting the local police. The state government has taken wrong decisions. So if you want to protest, do it the way Gandhiji did. Organise a non-cooperation movement in a democratic way," Banerjee said.
"It's the responsibility of the state government to let the police work independently," she added.
More than 50 people have died in the political violence ripping through the state since the Lok Sabha polls, which saw the Trinamool, Congress and Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) alliance decimating the Left Front.