Couldn't cancel Durga Puja carnival due to foreign guests, was monitoring North Bengal: Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata, Oct 7 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday that the Durga Puja carnival could not be cancelled due to the presence of the foreign delegations, and her own presence at the event was a necessity, that is why she was unable to travel to North Bengal, but was in constant touch with the officials seeking ground reports about the flood situation.

“The local administration needs at least 48 hours for initial crisis control after any disaster. Some are only politicising the issue by raising questions about why the carnival was organised then. They are forgetting that this carnival is the pride of Bengal. How could the community Durga Puja committee, which is eager to participate in the carnival, be disappointed? There were foreign delegates at the carnival. So it was not possible to cancel the event,” the Chief Minister told media persons at Siliguri on Tuesday afternoon.

She also claimed that her presence at North Bengal on Sunday would have affected the initial crisis control process to a great extent.

“The presence of the VVIPs would have affected the relief and rescue process. The police would have been under pressure on whether to stand by people or manage the movements of VVIPs,” the Chief Minister said.

She also claimed that even in Kolkata, she was in constant touch with the officials over the flood situation.

“On October 5, I had a meeting with the Chief Secretary and the state director general of police at 5 a.m. The teams from the state disaster management, fire services, and the police forces reached the affected spots by 9 a.m. The administration was alert. Otherwise, there would have been many more losses of lives,” the Chief Minister said.

She also launched an attack on the Union government and accused the latter of only seeking reports from the state government within 24 hours in case of any disaster, instead of extending help and cooperation to manage the same.

“Whenever there is any crisis, the Union government always seeks a report within 24 hours. At times, it takes at least 15 days to send the report. But even after receiving reports, the Union government does not provide funds for crisis control, even in events of flood.

--IANS

src/dan