Permission denied for CPI(M) convention

Referring to the experience of a few months ago about a law and order problem at a meeting addressed by Leader of the Opposition and CPI(M) leader Suryakanta Mishra at Arambagh, the local police informed SDO Arindam Neogy that permission to hold the convention at Rabindra Bhavan could not be given as it might lead to deterioration of law and order.

Sub-divisional officer Neogy has forwarded a note on this to West Bengal Home Secretary Basudev Banerjee, Hooghly district administration sources said today.

Mishra, at a CPI(M) teachers wing rally in Kolkata, slammed the decision as 'dictatorial'.

"The Mamata Banerjee government is bent upon throttling democracy and opposition's voice in West Bengal. It smacks of a dictatorial tendency," Mishra, a CPI(M) politburo member, said.

"You cannot silence our protest against atrocities and attacks on democracy by denying permission to hold our party workers' convention," he said.

Hooghly district CPI(M) secretary and former higher education minister Sudarshan Roychowdhury said his party was determined to hold the convention at Arambagh on September 9 as scheduled.