Mamata acts tough against Congress's Bengal shutdown

Taking a firm stand against the Congress call for a 12-hour shutdown in West Bengal on Tuesday, the Mamata Banerjee government on Monday issued a circular mandating all state government officials to report to duty.

The Congress called the shutdown against the ruling Trinamool Congress-sponsored "anarchy" in the state, including the lynching of a college student in West Midnapore district.

"All state government offices, including those provided with grants-in-aid by the state government would remain open and all employees should report for duty on that date," said a memorandum issued by the state finance department.

"The governor has decided that absence of employees on that date will be treated as 'dies non' and no salary will be admissable unless such absence is covered by the grounds as mentioned in a memo issued by the department in 2012," read the memorandum.

Reacting to the development, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury accused the government of resorting to "terror" tactics to foil Tuesday's shutdown.

"The circular is a reflection of the dictatorial attitude of the Trinamool government," said Chowdhury.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party's state president Rahul Sinha said his party did not support the shutdown, the Communist Party of India-Marxist led Left Front remained non committal.

In a related development, Congress leader Abdul Mannan during the day approached the Calcutta High Court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the lynching of Krishna Prasad Jana, a student of the Sabang Sajanikanta Mahavidyalaya in West Midnapore earlier in the month.

"The state government as well as the police have already proved that they will not allow to unearth who are behind this brutal killing. So we have filed a public interest litigation seeking an independent agency preferably the CBI to probe the case," said Mannan.

While Chief Minister Banerjee attributed Jana's death to internal feud among the Congress-affiliated Chhatra Parishad activists, West Midnapore police superintendent Bharati Ghosh claimed that those named in the complaint including those arrested were not involved in the attack.