Trinamool destroying development, democratic systems: Left Front

West Bengal's Left Front Tuesday charged the Trinamool Congress government with destroying the process of development and participatory democracy in the state over the past two years it has been in power.

"Before the 2011 assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress had campaigned across the state that it will usher in change and build a new Bengal. But instead of bringing any change, they are destroying the development ushered in by the previous Left Front governments," Left Front chairman Biman Bose told media persons after a meeting of the Front partners.

"They are moving towards destroying the well-entrenched democratic system and the process of participatory democracy," he said.

Comparing the first two years of the erstwhile Left Front regime with the same period of the rule by the Trinamool, Bose said: "One can easily find that the Left Front had done much better than what the current government has done".

He said seeing a huge demand for electricity, the LF had set up power plants, ushered in land reforms in the state, "but the new government has not set up a single power plant in these two years".

"The farmers in the villages definitely did not commit suicide during the first two years of the Left Front government. But they are doing so now," he said.

Expressing concern over the decrease in cultivated land, he claimed while food production in the first two years of the LF rule had an "ascending curve", the graph was spiralling downward under the Trinamool regime.

"If the descending curve continues, the state will face a crisis in agriculture that will result to food shortage," he said.

Bose alleged that the state government "not even once in its two-year rule called all-party meeting to discuss the social problems of the state, as they don't like to consult with others on the problematic issues".

He again pressed the demand for the panchayat (rural bodies) elections to be held on time and denied the LF had any motive in delaying these.

"The state government wanted to hold premature panchayat elections last year and we had opposed it... the panchayat heads are elected for a period of five years and why will they vacate their posts in 4 years? If anyone had moved the court on the issue, that would have created a problem," said Bose.

He said if there is a democratic set-up in the state, the LF candidates can definitely file the nominations for the panchayat polls. "But if the atmosphere is vitiated by partycracy and anarchy, we may face problems."

Bose also reiterated the Left Front's demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry under court's supervision into the Saradha chit fund mess.