Thursday, September 22 2005 17:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee today (Sept 22, 2005) demanded a CBI enquiry into the killings in West Bengal's Coochbehar district where a statehood demand surfaced violently on Tuesday (Sept 20, 2005).

Lashing out at the Buddhadev Bhattacherjee Government for administrative lapses, she told PTI that facts revealed that the administration had failed to respond and there was no co-ordination between police and intelligence agencies.

The administration, Banerjee claimed, had no idea that the Greater Coochbehar People's Association (GCPA) could mobilise such a huge number of people in support of their demands.

The Trinamool Congress Chief said the incident brought to the fore the 'real character' of marxists, the Left Front Government and Alimuddin Street, the state Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) party headquarters.

She claimed that the State Government had been misleading the people with false expectations about industries and economic turnaround in West Bengal.

Actually most of North Bengal and parts of South Bengal, she said, were reeling under poverty and backwardness.

"The marxists have never cared to address the problems which has helped these forces to take advantage," she said.

GCPA is agitating for an 'Interim Government' for Cooch Behar district claiming that the terms under which the erstwhile princely state was merged with India and subsequently West Bengal after Independence, were violated.