WB govt indifferent to high crime rate: CPI(M)

The CPI(M) today accused the West Bengal government of being indifferent to the state being put at the top in crime by the National Crime Records Bureau.

"The state government has been totally indifferent to the upswing in crime rate starting from the Barasat gangrape of a college girl, murderous assault of two TV reporters at Barrackpore and murder of former CPI(M) MLA at Burnpur in last few days," senior CPI(M) leader Suryakanta Mishra said.

"This government has put the state on top of other states in spurt in crime rate which is alarming and it has done practically nothing to set things right", Mishra, who is the Leader of the Opposition, alleged.

"The crime rate in West Bengal accounts for 13.7% at the all-India level and this is a cause of concern", Mishra said, referring to the NCRB report which had registered nearly 31,000 cases of atrocities against women in the state.

He said that the state government had failed to give the mandatory feedback to the NCRB at regular intervals.

The CPI(M) leader alleged that opposition candidates for the panchayat elections were not provided security during the filing of nominations.