Farmers Movement Archive

TMC team headed to Nagaland returns from Kolkata airport, says Sec 144 imposed in Mon

KOLKATA: A five-member team of the Trinamool Congress ordered to travel to Nagland by party boss and Wet Bengal chief minister chief minister to speak to the families of civilians killed over the weekend returned from the Kolkata airport after learning that prohibitory orders have been imposed in Mon district in Nagaland, 300km from state capital Kohima, TMC leaders said. “After we reached the Kolkata airport and were about to take a flight to Jorhat, from where we had plans to head towards Mon, we came to know that the district administration has issued prohibitory orders. We came to know that movement of all vehicles, barring emergency ones have been restricted and we won’t be allowed to go there,” TMC member of parliament Prasun Banerjee said.The team comprising four Trinamool Congress parliamentarians including Prasun Banerjee, Sushmita Dev, Aparupa Poddar, Santanu Sen and former Mizoram advocate general Biswajit Deb, was scheduled to head for the north eastern state to speak to the families of the victims. Poddar, who tweeted two photographs of the TMC team at Kolkata airport to take the flight, called the prohibitory order “another act of subversion of rule or (and) law & democracy”. She alleged the order under Section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure was designed to bar the TMC delegation travelling to ground zero of the botched up security operation.Protests erupted on Sunday after 14 civilians were killed by army soldiers who appeared to have mistaken them for militants in Nagaland’s Mon district. The Mon district administration imposed a curfew in the town and prohibited movement of all non-essential vehicles in the district. Entry into the district was also prohibited and mobile internet services were suspended in the region, a district official said. An Indian army statement said it “deeply regretted” the incident and its aftermath, adding that “the cause of the unfortunate loss of lives is being investigated at the highest level and appropriate action will be taken as per the course of law.” Banerjee’s prompt direction to party leaders to reach the Nagaland district came against the backdrop of the Trinamool Congress’s efforts to expand its footprint beyond Bengal.While it has already landed in Tripura and Goa, it has become the largest opposition party in Meghalaya on account of 12 Congress legislators, including former chief minister Mukul Sangma, switching sides and joining Mamata Banerjee’s party.Elaborating the party’s expansion plans, Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee recently said the Trinamool plans to set up working units in at least 15 states within the next one year.As part of this effort, Mamata Banerjee’s party sent a delegation of five TMC MPs - Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sushmita Dev, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Pratima Mondal and Dola Sen – to meet families of farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh.Banerjee also sent her emissaries to meet the farmers at Singhu border in Delhi when they were protesting against the three contentious farm bills.

Hindustan Times

07-12-2021

Kolkata