1. Mamata Banerjee Dares Delhi to Topple Bengal Government
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday dared the BJP-led Centre to topple her government and imprison her, reasserting that neither the amended citizenship law nor the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would be implemented in Bengal.
“For as long as I am alive, we will never implement the black law and the NRC here…. You, with all your threats of Article 356 (President’s rule) and sending central forces, go right ahead and fell our government…. Have me imprisoned, do whatever you think you can. You will not silence me,” Mamata thundered outside Rabindranath Tagore’s Jorasanko house.
“Over my dead body,” the Bengal chief minister said to loud cheers from an audience of thousands at the culmination of her hour-long, 5.7km march through the heart of the city.
(Source: The Telegraph)
2. Population Update Halted in Bengal
The Mamata Banerjee government on Monday issued an order to put on hold all activities related to the update of the National Population Register (NPR), but said it would carry on with the Census 2021.
“The state government needs more clarity on the NPR. Like, we don’t know where the data would be used or for which purpose individual information is being collected. The Centre did not publish the data collected under the NPR in 2011 and 2015. Until the state government get clarity on these issues, the exercise would be kept in abeyance. The state would carry out the Census 2021,” said a senior Nabanna official.
Earlier, the state had issued an order to start training for enumerators who were supposed to carry out door-to-survey to collect data for Census 2021 and the update of the NPR, 2020. Several districts had started training for master trainers who were supposed to impart training to the grassroots level government employees or the enumerators.
(Source: The Telegraph)
3. BJP Backs Jamia Boots
BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Monday endorsed the crackdown on anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protesters of Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi and in Assam before asserting that police should have launched similar action in Bengal also.
“The job of the police is to fire when people are destroying public properties in the name of protests. Delhi Police and Assam Police had done their job unlike the Bengal police. Here, the police are peacefully watching destruction of public properties and doing nothing to control the vandalism,” the state BJP chief said.
Calling the police in Bengal “eunuchs”, the Midnapore MP said he had asked BJP supporters not to seek permission for rallies as the force was playing the role of mere spectators without initiating any FIR against the “Bangladeshi Muslim” agitators who had been destroying public properties since Friday late afternoon.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. West Bengal: Woman Found Dead, Family Claims Scared of NRC She Killed Self
A 36-year-old woman was found dead in West Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman district, police said on Sunday, with her family claiming that scared of the proposed country-wide NRC she committed suicide.
Shipra Sikder was found hanging with a muffler wrapped around her neck at her house in Jaugram area’s Teli village under Jamalpur police station limits on Saturday, police said.
She was taken to the Jamalpur government hospital where doctors declared her brought dead, they said.
(Source: PTI)
5. After Governor’s Swipes, Mamata Hits Back: ‘Cooperate, Don’t Aggravate Situation’
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Governor Jagdeep Dhankar Monday bickered over the Citizenship Amendment Act protests in the state, with the CM writing to the Governor to ‘cooperate with the government instead of criticising it’, and Dhankar in response asking her to “engage in soul searching”.
As Banerjee Monday led a huge rally against the CAA, Dhankar put out several tweets, asking her to “personally update me at Raj Bhawan tomorrow at a time of her choice”. He also said he had asked the Chief Secretary and DGP for updates, but there had been no response, which was “unfortunate and unexpected of them”. “Am stunned that in spite of request made neither Chief Secretary nor Director General of Police have come to brief and update me on the current painful situation in the State,” the Governor said.
(Source: The Indian Express)
6. More Trains Cancelled
The Northeast Frontier Railway announced on Monday that trains bound for Calcutta and some destinations in south India from north Bengal and Northeast were cancelled till Tuesday (December 17) because of widespread damage to railway properties in the protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Since Sunday, no train has passed through the New Jalpaiguri-Malda Town route that connects north Bengal with south Bengal and south India.
“Some passenger trains have been cancelled because of agitations at various stations in Bengal and damage caused to railway properties. The loss is being assessed and efforts are on to restore the train services. All trains going from the NFR region to areas under the Eastern Railway have been cancelled till the improvement in the situation,” S. Chanda, the chief public relations officer of the NFR, said on Monday.
(Source: The Telegraph)
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