Mamata Banerjee: No riots, social media giving wrong info'

Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday denied any incident of rioting at Dhulagarh in Howrah district and alleged that “wrong information” was being given on social media.

“In the last 15 days, social media is running wrong information on an incident which did not take place at all,” Ms Banerjee said at a programme, in an apparent reference to the reports of violence in Dhulagarh, which is barely 20 km from the state secretariat. “In order to break a news one must not act irresponsibly. If something has really happened then you (media) have every right to report but I think a field survey must be conducted,” she stated.

Her remarks came even as a senior government official had said on Thursday that strict actions were taken against those involved in the Dhulagarh violence and the process of giving compensation to the affected had started. The state government, Ms Banerjee said on Friday, is the first to help a family when their home is damaged or they are affected.

“If there is an accident, we immediately take steps to help the family.... We do it on humanitarian grounds but we do not do any publicity.” It was learnt from sources that the state government was paying compensation of around Rs 35,000 to families whose houses were damaged in the incident. The district police said inhabitants are wary of returning to their homes at Dhulagarh.

Delegations of BJP, CPI(M) and Congress were stopped from visiting the troubled areas of the district and police superintendent of Howrah (rural) Sabyasachi Raman Mishra was transferred in the wake of violence in less than a fortnight of his appointment. The BJP has hit out at Ms Banerjee over the Dhulagarh incident, claiming that Hindus have been targeted in the violence.