Three member team leaves for West Bengal to assess situation

The Centre today rushed a three-member team to assess the situation in West Bengal following a spate of continuous clashes between supporters of Trinamool Congress and Left parties.

Home ministry sources said the team, led by additional secretary (Naxal management) DRS Choudhary, will hold meetings with senior officers of the state administration and visit two to three of the violence-hit places during their three-day tour.

"We hope that the West Bengal government will facilitate their travel to two or three places where the violence has taken place," a senior home ministry official said.

Earlier today, both the Houses witnessed noisy scenes with the Upper House being adjourned twice on the issue and Left parties and SP members storming the well in Lok Sabha, raising slogans and warning that any move to impose president's rule in the state would be "unconstitutional".

Railway minister and TC chief Mamata Banerjee has been long demanding to send a Central team to West Bengal as her party has been claiming that there has been "complete breakdown of law and order".

Violence on November 26 in Hooghly district, where one person was killed and a police officer and several others injured, triggered a TC outburst in Lok Sabha with the party demanding that a team from the Centre be sent to the state.

The TC chief has claimed that home minister P Chidambaram has written to the State government several times over the "deteriorating law and order" situation.