In an apparent followup of a general no-bandh policy of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee the Bengal Government on Friday chose to strike at the two-day “general strike” called by the Left parties with a Finance Department directive making attendance mandatory in all Government and Government-funded offices on January 8 and 9.
A memorandum issued on Friday by HK Diwedi Additional Chief Secretary Government of West Bengal said, “All State Government offices including those provided with grant-in-aids by the State Government shall remain open (on January 8 and 9) and all the employees shall report for duty on those dates.”
In pursuant to the order the Government also “decided that no casual leave for absence … shall be granted to any employee on the said dates.” Salary will be deducted leading even to breakage in service if the circular was not complied by the government employees, officials said even as the opposition Left and the Congress lambasted the Chief Minister for “tacitly backing the Narendra Modi Government.”
CPI(M) politburo member Biman Bose said “we have already stated that the bandh is not against the Bengal Government and that it has been called by the Left parties against the general anti-people policies of the BJP-led central Government. We even asked for Trinamool Congress’ support.
“But it seems that like on earlier occasions Mamata Banerjee does not want to take on the BJP in real terms. She only talks loud against this anti-people Government but has no genuine feeling for the people who are suffering at the hands of the Modi Government.”
The Congress leaders who had earlier given a “moral support” to the bandh said, “their pary would not descend on the streets but are “support this bandh,” wondering “why the TMC Government wants to preserve the interests of the BJP in Bengal.”
CPI(M)’s Samik Lahiri dared the Government to foil the strike with popular support instead of controlling it through government orders. “Everyone knows that lakhs of government employees will be forced to join work lest there is a breakage in service. But their heart will be with the issues of bandh. Still the people in general will back the strike,” he said adding the Chief Minister has to prove by her deeds that she is against the Modi Government’s policies. “Only shouting in public will not do. Her tricks are being read by the people.”
Meanwhile CPI(M) and BJP workers engaged each other in fisticuffs at Salanpur in Asansol when a pro-strike rally surrounded the car of Union Minister Babul Supriyo and raised slogans agaisnt him. None was however injured sources said.