Kolkata : The death toll following heavy rainfall and landslides in the hills, Terai, and Dooars regions of North Bengal till Tuesday morning rose to 36, according to the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and district administrations in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri.
As the weather conditions improved since Monday morning, relief and rescue teams made substantial progress. Authorities shifted several affected people to safe places, and officials evacuated tourists from the impacted areas.
Meanwhile, the BJP questioned whether Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had the moral right to question the Prime Minister over his criticism of the West Bengal government and the Trinamool Congress following the attack on a BJP Lok Sabha member and party legislator, allegedly by ruling party activists, on Monday afternoon.
When BJP Lok Sabha member Khagen Murmu and the party’s chief whip in the Assembly, Shankar Ghosh, were attacked on their way to disaster-affected areas with relief materials—leaving Murmu severely injured—the Prime Minister issued a social media statement that same evening, claiming the development exposed the Trinamool Congress’s insensitivity and the state’s pathetic law and order situation.
On Monday night, Mamata Banerjee released a counter-statement accusing the Prime Minister of politicising the natural disaster in North Bengal and asserting that he chose to blame the Trinamool Congress and the West Bengal government without any verified evidence, legal inquiry, or administrative report.
Hours later, the BJP’s Information Technology Cell Chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal issued another statement, asking whether the Chief Minister had any moral right to give lessons in morality to the Prime Minister.
“It wasn’t the Prime Minister who politicised the disaster — Mamata Banerjee abdicated responsibility. Instead of leading relief efforts, she celebrated in Kolkata while BJP MPs and MLAs worked on the ground to provide aid to the affected,” Malviya claimed.
He alleged that ruling party goons, not local people, carried out the attack on the BJP Lok Sabha member and legislators.
“The same Chief Minister who talks of constitutional ethos runs a regime where Opposition candidates die during elections, women face brutalisation in Sandeshkhali and Basirhat, police act as party muscle, and relief reaches people on party lines,” Malviya added.
–IANS
