HC grants relief for TMC martyrs’ day rally
After days of tug-of-war between rival groups of the Trinamool Congress demanding police permission for the premium Victoria House venue near the busy Esplanade crossing to hold their respective version of the TMC Martyrs’ Day rally the Mamata Banerjee faction of the party on Wednesday managed to receive a “face saving” relief from the Calcutta High which directed the administration to accommodate the former Chief Minister’s rally near Birla Planetarium, some two km south of Victoria House where the former Chief Minister had been holding her rally every year for the past 15 years or so.
The Bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya shifted the venue from Victoria House to Cathedral Road in front of Birla Planetarium after the State Government cited traffic disruption in the heart of Kolkata and law and order issues if the two rival factions were allowed to hold rallies near each other.
After hearing senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee appearing for the Mamata Banerjee faction, the Court granted permission allowed the group hold its rally but with not more than 3,000 people attending. The Court also restricted the rally timing between 12.30 and 3.30 pm, asking the organisers to submit the names of at least 20 volunteers who would be responsible for maintaining order to the Kolkata Police.
The other faction, led by State Opposition Leader Ritabarta Bannerjee, has already been given a permission by the Kolkata Police to hold its own version of rally on Mayo Road near the Mahatma Gandhi Statue, a little more than a km away Victoria House.
The Congress, which also organizes its own version of Martyrs’ Day rally was earlier allowed to hold the meeting at Shahid Minar not very far away from Victoria House crossing.
Incidentally, in a smart move apparently towards bringing the two outfits closer, particularly when Mamata Banerjee needed it the most, the Pradesh Congress, for the first time, invited the former Chief Minister to attend its rally at Shahid Minar.
TMC Martyrs’ Day rally is held every year since 1993 to commemorate 14 Youth Congress workers who died in a police firing on July 21 during a skirmish between a rally led by Mamata Banerjee, then a Youth Congress leader and the police force.
Banerjee had given a call to march to the Writers’ Buildings, housing the then State secretariat, pressing for her demand to make voters' ID cards mandatory for voting.
