Politics

Heightened Security in Kolkata Ahead of Students’ ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ Rally Demanding CM Mamata Banerjee’s Resignation

At the same time, Kolkata has now turned into a fortress with massive security deployment in view of the ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ rally that students are to hold today to march up to the state secretariat to demand the resignation of the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, in response to the rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor outside RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

More than 6,000 Kolkata Police personnel have been deployed all over the city since 8 in the morning with the help of water cannons; at least 19 points of barricading were done to manage the situation. Besides this, 26 district collectors have been put in charge of monitoring the rally, and there will be aerial surveillance through drones. Yet, despite the scale of the protest, police officials have confirmed that no permission was sought by the organizers to conduct the rally.

The unregistered students’ body Paschim Banga Chhatra Samaj submitted a call for a ‘March to Nabanna’ along with the Sangrami Joutha Mancha, a fighting platform of the struggle of state government employees demanding an upward revision of their dearness allowance to 100%, equal to the Central government employees’ level.

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The BJP further escalated the tensions by alleging that four student activists, who were distributing food among the volunteers at Howrah station, have gone missing after midnight. It has threatened to hold Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee responsible if anything happened to their students.

As Kolkata gears up for the rally, the city’s administration is high on alert, monitoring the situation with a keen eye to avoid even the smallest potentiality of disruption or any incidents of violence.