Dhulagarh incident local problem, not communal clash: Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said no communal clash took place at Dhulagarh in Howrah district and termed it as "local problem".

"It is a small matter. It is a local problem. That was not a communal problem. I will stick to police's version," she told mediapersons at the state secretariat.

Earlier in the day the Chief Minister denied any incident of rioting at Dhulagarh and alleged that "wrong information" was being given on social media.

"In the last 15 days, social media is running wrong information on an incident which did not take place at all," Banerjee said at a programme here in an apparent reference to reports of violence earlier this month at Dhulagarh, which is barely 20 km from the state secretariat.
 

"In order to break news one must not act irresponsibly. If something has really happened then you (media) have every right to report it but I think a field survey must be done," she said.

Her remarks came even as a senior government official had yesterday said strict actions were taken against those involved in the Dhulagarh violence and the process of giving compensation to the affected has started.

The state government, Banerjee said today, is the first to help a family when their home is damaged or they are affected.

"If there is an accident, we immediately take steps to help the family.... We do it on humanitarian grounds but we do not do any publicity," she said.

District police said inhabitants are wary of returning to their homes at Dhulagarh.

Delegations of BJP, CPI(M) and Congress were stopped from visiting the troubled areas of the district and police superintendent of Howrah (Rural) Sabyasachi Raman Mishra was transferred in the wake of violence within less than a fortnight of his appointment.

BJP has hit out at Banerjee over the Dhulagarh incident.

"This is height of politics of appeasement. I want to ask those intellectuals, who cried over 2002 riots in Gujarat and then intolerant India, that when are they going to Kolkata," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said yesterday.