Express News Service
GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court on Wednesday asked the Assam government and the Centre to submit a detailed report within three weeks on the status of about 400 people from West Bengal who fled to Assam in the face of post-election.
While hearing two Public Interest Litigations, the bench comprising Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Manash Ranjan Pathak also sought to know about the status of children, lodged in makeshift camps in Assam’s Dhubri, from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
The matter will be taken up for hearing again on July 14. When people, including women, from West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district, crossed over to Dhubri over a period of three days, the Assam administration had sheltered them in two makeshift camps.
On May 14, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar visited one of the two camps and met the inmates.
“These people are so terrified that they told me they could be attacked because I met them. They are facing political vendetta for opposing the ruling party (Trinamool Congress),” he had then said.
Meanwhile, president of the Assam BJP unit Ranjeet Kumar Dass said the party would demand the imposition of the President’s rule in West Bengal.
“The BJP believes in democracy. If (West Bengal Chief Minister) Mamata Banerjee fails to restore it in West Bengal, we will not only demand the imposition of President’s Rule but will also launch an agitation in Assam,” Dass said.
