Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday broke her silence over the Anandapur fire, which claimed many lives, saying that she had sent her ministers to the ground and ensured a civic volunteer job for one member of each bereaved family, along with assurance of compensation of ₹15 lakh from the private companies where the victims had been working.
“Yesterday, some of our friends who used to work in a private company died. I sent Bobby (minister Firhad Hakim) and Aroop (minister Aroop Biswas) there. The momo company has agreed to provide compensation of ₹10 lakh, and the decorators will provide ₹5 lakh more. I have asked the police to provide a civic volunteer job to one member of each bereaved family,” said the chief minister at her Singur rally.
“We are not inhumane like you (BJP),” Mamata added.
She spoke about the tragic fire on a day when the toll was feared to have reached 16, and multiple sources suspected that the number might increase.
Since the fire broke out late on Sunday night and turned into a major blaze in the eastern fringes of the city, all Opposition parties in Bengal, including the BJP, have mounted sharp attacks on Mamata over her silence and her government’s failure to prevent such tragic incidents because of administrative failure.
The leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, on Wednesday questioned
why Mamata, who often travels to different places, did not visit the site of the fire immediately, despite it being only a stone’s throw from her residence.
“The chief minister, who attends several events, political programmes, and campaign activities managed by the poll strategy agency I-PAC, did not visit Anandapur even once. She probably did not go because the people who died were not from a particular community or religion. So she did not perform her duty as chief minister or show basic humanitarian courtesy,” said Adhikari, who also accused the state government of administrative failures.
Although Adhikari attempted to give a communal angle to the incident by claiming that the majority of the deceased were from the Hindu community, he,
along with other BJP leaders as well as leaders from the CPM and Congress, pointed out how illegal constructions had mushroomed on land falling under the East Kolkata Wetlands, where such structures were not only illegal but also violate environmental norms.
BJP national president Nitin Nabin, who concluded his two-day trip to Bengal on Wednesday, also mentioned the fire. He said BJP leaders would stand by the affected families who lost their loved ones in the mishap.
Adhikari said BJP MLA Ashok Dinda was deployed on the ground and that the party leadership was in touch with him for updates.