West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday sought to know why a central team was not sent to probe the death of a mother-daughter duo in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh during an eviction drive.
The duo died allegedly due to self-immolation during an anti-encroachment drive in Kanpur's Dehat district on February 13.
Banerjee claimed that the drive in UP was being conducted to evict "poor" people.
"But no probe is instituted in such cases; why was no central team sent there?" she asked, while speaking at a programme in Bankura.
She asserted that her government gives land rights to the poor to ensure their safety.
Banerjee and her party TMC have been vocal about central teams being sent to West Bengal on various issues, with the most recent ones being on mid-day meal distribution and MNREGA implementation in the state.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday ordered a magisterial inquiry into the death of the mother-daughter duo in Kanpur Dehat during an anti-encroachment drive.
Claiming that the state was freed of ultra-Left terror under her party's rule, Banerjee said that earlier people could not go out of their homes in the affected Jangalmahal area, spread across Bankura, Paschim Medinipur, Jhargram and Purulia districts, owing to depredations of the Maoists.
"Touchwood, no Maoist attack or ambush has taken place in the last 11 years and no one has had to stay indoors out of such fear," she said.
On Wednesday, Congress workers protested outside the party office in Lucknow after they were apparently not allowed to proceed towards Raj Bhavan and submit a memorandum to Governor Anandiben Patel.
Police put barricades outside the Congress office and there were heated exchanges between the protesters and them. Congress state president Brijlal Khabri demanded a judicial probe into the deaths.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati slammed the BJP government for following "bulldozer politics” which she said is taking innocent lives.
Samajwadi Party leaders, meanwhile, made it clear that they plan to raise the issue in the state assembly during the Budget session which begins Monday.
SP’s chief whip in the House Manoj Pandey and its MLA Amitabh Vajpayee said the state’s BJP government should give a compensation of Rs 5 crore to the victims’ family for each death and government jobs to two of its members.
CM Adityanath told a television channel that the truth about the incident will come out “in a transparent manner”.
"The Kanpur incident is tragic. An SIT (special investigation team) is already looking into it. I have also ordered a magisterial probe into it," he tweeted.
Uttar Pradesh Minister of State for Women's Welfare Pratibha Shukla met the bereaved family on Tuesday and blamed district officials for the turn of events that led to the deaths.
Police have registered an FIR against 39 people, including a sub-divisional magistrate, four revenue officials, a police station head and unnamed police personnel. Murder is among the sections listed in the FIR.