LF motion defeated, Congress abstains

The Congress did not side with the Left Front today and abstained from voting on an adjournment motion in the Assembly on the law and order situation in Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal brought by Leader of the Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra, which was defeated.
The motion, admitted by Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay, was defeated by 125 to 53.
"We participated in the debate, but did not want to vote with the CPI-M. The Marxists should not speak about law and order in the state, which they had destroyed during their 34-year rule," senior Congress MLA Manas Bhuniya told reporters.
He said that the government changed data provided by the police before sending to the crime records bureau.

Earlier, speaking on the motion in the House, Surjya Kanta Mishra said that since the Trinamool government came to power in May 2011 in the state, incidents of attack on women and rape has been on the rise.
It was surprising to see that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, also the police minister, was absent during a discussion on law and order, Mishra said adding that it seemed that the Chief Minister was not very keen to come to the House.

There was only one minister in the state and others don't have any powers, Mishra said.
The recent killing of a police constable at Garden Reach symbolised the deteriorating law and order situation in West Bengal, he claimed.

Industry minister Partha Chatterjee said that it was amazing to learn that a discussion on law and order was being initiated by none other than the CPI-M, which was behind the killings at Chhota Angria, Nannur, Netai, Nandigram and Singur.
Chatterjee said that during the Left Front regime, the police was made a stooge by the administration and attacks on women had been consistently on the rise till 2010.
Bhuniya said, when rape and killings were on the rise, the Chief Minister should be very serious in dealing with the situation.