Paramilitary personnel deployed for the polls should not terrorise people: TMC

The Trinamool Congress Sunday said central paramilitary personnel deployed ahead of the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal should not "terrorise" the people in the "name of making them feel safe and secure".

Party secretary general Partha Chatterjee said a paramilitary personnel was seen in a TV news channel asking a woman at her home in the city about the whereabouts of her son and telling her "Koi dadagiri nahi chalega," (no hooliganism will be allowed).

The footage was aired on Saturday night, Chatterjee told a workers' meeting here.

"Does a central force personnel have the right to visit a house and threaten its residents this way during a flag march, which is aimed at instilling confidence among the people?" the state minister asked.

TMC, Chatterjee said, will "certainly" take up the issue at the appropriate level.

"We don't have anything against the deployment of central forces. But they (forces) have no right to terrorise people in the name of interaction with locals," he said.

Claiming that 135 companies of central forces will be deployed in the seven-phase polls, Chatterjee remarked, "Such large deployed of paramilitary force is not even seen in Kashmir."