BJP shifts focus to floods in Bengal

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 28. The Bharatiya Janata Party has shifted its focus of attention from the ``law and order'' situation in West Bengal to floods which have already claimed 600 lives. The new demand is that the State Chief Minister, Mr. Jyoti Basu, must immediately call for an all-party meeting at the State level and set up an All-Party State Relief Committee to oversee relief efforts.

Two senior BJP leaders, Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu and Mr. Kailashpati Mishra, met the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, today to demand speedy relief for West Bengal. Later, speaking to newspersons, Mr. Naidu quoted the Prime Minister as saying that ``West Bengal has already exhausted its share of the national calamity relief fund.''

However, Mr. Vajpayee has agreed to send a Central team to assess the damage though the State was yet to send a report on the situation. While Mr. Naidu objected to a reported statement from the CPI(M) leader, Mr. Nilotpal Basu, that the Centre had not given a single paisa as relief, he confirmed it by saying that no relief had been sent as the State had exhausted the fund due to it.

Mr. Naidu's appeal was that relief should not be politicised, and the State Government should take the initiative to get all parties irrespective of their political hostilities to cooperate in the relief efforts. Mr. Naidu quoted the State Congress chief, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, to allege that people not supporting the Left parties were not being given any relief.

Mr. Mishra, who continues to be the BJP in-charge of West Bengal in the absence of work allocation by the new party president, charged the Basu Government with being ``busy responding to the Trinamool Congress president, Ms. Mamata Bannerjee, and giving ulta seedha jawab (nonsensical answers) to the Home Minister's letters instead of dealing with the grim flood situation.''

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