After BJP, now Congress delegation not allowed to visit violence-hit Makra

Despite a scuffle with police and a sit-in demonstration, a Congress delegation led by the party's state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was on Saturday not allowed to enter the trouble-torn Makra village in Birbhum district, which was made out of bounds for politicians by the Trinamool Congress government.

Chowdhury was heading a delegation of 12 MLAs and other leaders to visit Makra where three persons were killed in a clash between Trinamool Congress and BJP on Monday amidst Section 144 CrPC imposed in the area.

The Prohibitory Orders was cited as the reason for not letting them in by the police who stopped the Congress delegation at Chaumondalpur, about 3 km from Makra. The Congress leaders were then involved in a spat with the police and demanded that they be allowed to visit Makra.

A scuffle ensued as Congress workers tried to break police barricades. Chowdhury, a former Union minister, later requested the police and local administration to allow a small team to enter the village without defying the Prohibitory Order so that they could interract with the villagers who were affected in the clash on Monday.

But the police and local administration ruled out their request, which led the delegation to obeserve a sit-in demonstration. Chowdhury later addressed the gathering standing on the bonnet of a vehicle of his convoy at the spot saying that they would not go into confrontation with the police like other parties, as he claimed to have been assured of withdrawal of the Prohibitory Orders in about four days.

"We will return after a week if the police fail to keep the assurance given to us," the WBPCC chief said.