'Why was no Central Team Sent to UP'? Mamata Banerjee on Probe Into Kanpur Mother-Daughter Deaths

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday sought to know why a central team was not sent to probe the death of a mother-daughter duo in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh during an eviction drive. The duo died allegedly due to self-immolation during an anti-encroachment drive in Kanpur's Dehat district on February 13. Banerjee claimed that the drive in UP was being conducted to evict "poor" people. "But no probe is instituted in such cases; why was no central team sent there?" she asked, while speaking at a programme in Bankura. She asserted that her government gives land rights to the poor to ensure their safety.

Banerjee and her party TMC have been vocal about central teams being sent to West Bengal on various issues, with the most recent ones being on mid-day meal distribution and MNREGA implementation in the state.

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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday ordered a magisterial inquiry into the death of the mother-daughter duo in Kanpur Dehat during an anti-encroachment drive.

Claiming that the state was freed of ultra-Left terror under her party's rule, Banerjee said that earlier people could not go out of their homes in the affected Jangalmahal area, spread across Bankura, Paschim Medinipur, Jhargram and Purulia districts, owing to depredations of the Maoists.

"Touchwood, no Maoist attack or ambush has taken place in the last 11 years and no one has had to stay indoors out of such fear," she said.