Bengal Bandh Today After Police Use Tear Gas, Water Canon On Protesters

1. The BJP has called for a 12-hour general strike after police lathi-charged, and used water cannons and tear gas to disperse protesters attempting to reach ‘Nabanna’ on Tuesday.
2. The ‘Nabanna Abhijan‘ call was given by an unregistered student body ‘Paschim Banga Chhatra Samaj’ and a dissident state government employees’ platform ‘Sangrami Joutha Mancha’. The ruling Trinamool Congress alleged that this was a BJP-backed protest.
3. The protesters were demanding the resignation of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the rape-murder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.
4. Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari alleged that over 160 protestors, including 17 women, suffered injuries in the police action. Police claimed that several cops were also injured in the clashes.
5. Mr Adhikari, who is the State’s Leader of Opposition, urged Governor CV Ananda Bose to “impose President’s Rule” in West Bengal.
6. “We are forced to give the dawn-to-dusk strike call for a general strike as this autocratic regime is turning a deaf ear to the voices of people, the demand for justice for the victim. Instead of justice, Mamata Banerjee’s police are turning on the peace-loving people of the state, who only wanted a safe and secure environment for women,” BJP state president and union minister Sukanta Majumdar said.
7. The West Bengal government urged people not to respond to BJP’s bandh. “The government will not allow any bandh on Wednesday. We urge people not to participate in it. All steps shall be taken to ensure that normal life is unaffected,” said Alapan Bandopadhyay, the chief advisor to Ms Banerjee.
8. The state issued a notification stating that all government offices would remain open and all employees, except those facing exigencies or are on leave, would have to report for duty on August 28 or face show-cause for their unauthorised absence.
9. The Trinamool said the BJP called a strike to gain political ground and said that there “will be no bandh” on Wednesday,
10. The rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor on August 9 has caused nationwide outrage, with junior doctors refusing to see non-emergency patients in many parts of the country. They are demanding justice for the victim and greater safety for women at hospitals.

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