India
He was on his way to the areas affected by cyclone Amphan to distribute relief materials when the police allegedly stopped his car at the Dhalai bridge near Garia area of the district.
Updated : May 23, 2020, 04:00 PM IST | Edited by : Arijit Saha
 "WB BJP President Dilip Ghosh")
The West Bengal Police on Saturday stopped state BJP president and MP Dilip Ghosh from visiting cyclone-affected areas Canning and Gosaba in the South 24 Parganas district.
He was on his way to the areas affected by cyclone Amphan to distribute relief materials when the police allegedly stopped his car at the Dhalai bridge near Garia area of the district.
"While moving towards Amphan cyclone-affected areas of Baruipur-Canning-Basanti, police barricade at Dhalai bridge (Kolkata). Strange!" Dilip Ghosh tweeted.
"I don't know why I have been stopped from visiting the cyclone-affected areas. The TMC leaders are visiting these places and distributing relief materials. The police is not stopping them. The rule only changes for the BJP leaders," he told the media.
Ghosh threatened to do a stage-in protest if he was not allowed to go those cyclone-affected areas. Meanwhile, the workers accompanying him engaged in a scuffle with the police personnel, pushing and shoving them to make way for Dilip Ghosh's car.
The police told reporters that the BJP state president did not have the permission to travel to the area due to the rules laid down under coronavirus-necessitated lockdown.
Meanwhile, Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim accused the BJP of doing 'politics' over the distribution of relief materials.
On the other hand, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya accused the West Bengal government of "scoring political brownie points even in the times of disaster".
"West Bengal government is focused on scoring political brownie points even in times of disaster. Will politicize everything, not let BJP leaders reach people and will herself do nothing to ease the pain. Her government has failed the state," he tweeted.
This comes a day after PM Narendra Modi visited the state to take stock of the situation there after the cyclone ravaged the state, and later announced Rs 1000 crore package for relief work.
Meanwhile, the death toll due to Cyclone Amphan in West Bengal rose to 85 on Saturday. There were reports of protests in Kolkata where people blocked roads in various parts of the city over the administration's failure to restore normalcy even after three days.
The authorities are scrambling in various parts of the state to restore normalcy. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to visit Cyclone Amphan hit the South 24 Parganas district on Saturday and take stock of the situation.
Lakhs of people were rendered homeless as Cyclone Amphan cut a path of destruction through half-a-dozen districts of the state on Wednesday, flattening houses, uprooting thousands of trees, and swamping low-lying areas.
According to official sources, around 1.5 crore people of the state have been directly affected and more than 10 lakh houses destroyed due to the cyclone.
Although electricity and mobile connection were restored in some parts of Kolkata, and North and South 24 Parganas districts, many areas continued to remain in darkness as power poles had been blown away and communication lines snapped.
Several roads and houses in Kolkata, Howrah, and North and South 24 Parganas districts continue to remain waterlogged, as hapless citizens came out on the streets against the administration's "apathy and ineffectiveness".
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