Press trust of india
Kolkata, Sept 12: In a stern warning to the cow vigilantes, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Monday said law would take its course if anyone was found violating it.
The Chief Minister said while replying to a question if any action would be taken against cow vigilantes.
“A vegetarian will eat vegetarian food while non-vegetarians will eat non-vegetarian food. Who are these people to ask me what I am eating?” she asked.
“I request everyone not to play dirty games. Everyone has the right to practice religion and they are counting cows. People in Europe eat cows. Tribals also eat cows,” Banerjee pointed out to reporters at the state secretariat.
Warning that she would not spare anyone who plays with religion, Banerjee said these days even if there is an accident people tend to ask what the religion of the driver and the person killed was.
In the next Assembly session, the government will bring a bill making it mandatory for the culprits of any riot to give compensation (to the victims), the Chief Minister said.
“We will bring it with retrospective effect from the last five years,” she said.
There are some parties that aim to divide the people and incite violence, the Chief Minister said. However, in politics the fight should be based on ideology, not on the basis of religion or people, she said.
On the Singur issue, the Chief Minister said her government had promised to make the land arable once again for the benefit of farmers.
“The agriculture department will soon come up with a package for the Singur farmers to help them grow crops,” she said.
She said the administrative review meeting, scheduled for Wednesday at Singur, has been postponed to September 29.
Asked to comment on the railways fare hike, the Trinamool leader said she had been shocked to see the rates going up so many times.
“During my tenure, there was no hike and they are doing it all the time now. In the last two years there has been no new project or no new train, so they have saved a lot of money,” she said.