Yogi can’t lecture CM on law and order: Minister

Kolkata: A day after nine labourers from West Bengal among 13 were killed in an explosion in Uttar Pradesh, Trinamul Congress minister and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim has questioned the law and order situation of the state under UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s rule.

Accusing Mr Adityanath of making tall talks about law and order during his recent rally in West Bengal, he complained on Sunday that the UP CM has failed to tackle the situation in his home turf.

Mr Hakim, who was sent by chief minister Mamata Banerjee to visit the families of the nine victims, handed over a cheque for Rs 2 lakh as compensation from the state government to each family.

Slamming the BJP and its affiliate organisations over vigilantism, he alleged, “They are either lynching people on the pretext of eating meat in UP or severing hands of the people in Rajasthan or people get killed in a blast like this. We strongly protest against this anarchy across the country.”

Mr Hakim, also the urban development minister, claimed, “Mamata Banerjee is there. She is looking after it. But there should be an end to incidents. A few days ago, UP was trying to teach us a lesson about the law and order. How could Mr Yogi give lectures while people lose their lives in blast and newborns die for lack of oxygen? How could such a devastating blast take place in a state the CM of which spoke so much about the law and order situation here?”

He noted, “Since law and order is a state subject, our CM has sent a team to bring the bodies of the victims here and to cooperate with the UP government. We expect an impartial investigation to bring out the reality. They had jumped around too much about the blast at Khagragarh in Burdwan. But so many people did not die there. It was the state police that caught the accused of Jamaat and handed over them to the National Investigation Agency.”

Suspecting foul play behind the blast at Bhadohi, he asked, “Which is the team active in UP? How is it using grenades? Who kept the grenades inside the carpet factory? These questions will certainly arise. We hope that the administration would conduct a fair probe because our state lost many lives there.”

Mr Hakim said that the nine bodies are expected to reach Malda on Monday. He was accompanied by MP Mausam Benazir Noor who recently defected to the Trinamul.

The minister said that the victims were skilled labourers.