A new municipal service recruitment scam — and fresh round of CBI raids at multiple Government locations on Wednesday led Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to lash out at the BJP Government for beginning a “new gimmick” of raids in order to “turn the attention” from the Odisha train mishap and “suppress facts” related to its reasons.
A furious Chief Minister slammed the BJP Government for trying to suppress the truth behind the triple train accident at Balasore.
“Today they have sent CBI in Bengal to conduct raids in municipalities and Government places … tomorrow they will conduct raids in bathrooms also … all this is a gimmick to divert the attention from the train mishap … but we will not relent … we will want the truth to come out,” Banerjee said.
Questioning the need to bring CBI to investigate a train accident Banerjee said, “What was the need of ordering CBI investigation in Balasore … it was a train accident and the Commissioner of Railway Safety was enough to investigate it because they have the expertise to do so … the CBI has been brought to suppress the facts.”
The Chief Minister also said that her Government had directed the Bengal administration to be by the side of the accident victims and their kin.
“We will provide help to them for six months,” Banerjee said, adding the government would offer temporary jobs in the police force to the next of kin who had died in the mishap. She said that
She said that out of the 288 people dead about 103 were from Bengal. Out of them only 86 had been identified, the Chief Minister said adding 172 people from Bengal had suffered major injuries while about 635 had received minor injuries.
Demanding the real facts behind the tragedy she said, “we want to know the truth. Why did this accident take place? Why did so many people die? What will the CBI do? Is it a criminal case? Do you remember Pulwama? The CBI investigation is a gimmick, and is a tool to cover up everything. It is not an investigation to find out the truth behind the accident. All the paperwork and evidence are missing,” she said adding “there they have sent the CBI in Odisha … here (in Bengal municipalities) too they have CBI to conduct raids and disturb the government … today they are raiding the municipalities … tomorrow they will raid the bathrooms.”
The Chief Minister’s outburst came hours after 16 teams of CBI officials following a Calcutta High Court order conducted raids in more than 20 places including municipalities and the Urban Development Ministry offices all over the State.
The raid conducted by the CBI officials with the help of central forces at Barangar, South Dum Dum, Halisahar, Shantipur, Titagarh Panihati and other municipalities were still continuing when reports last came in.