Twelve days after the Left organised a march to the state secretariat Nabanna, the Congress will take up a similar programme on Tuesday to protest over a host of issues including the deteriorating law and order in West Bengal and murder of a student inside a college campus.
State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said on Monday that all state party leaders and workers have been asked to take part in the march in protest against violence targeting women and overall lawlessness in the state.
The rallyists would collect at three spots -- Howrah Station, Santragachi and Rani Rashmoni Avenue -- and then begin their march towards Nabanna.
On August 27, the march organised by the peasants' wings of the Left parties had triggered violence, with protesters and police engaging in pitched battles and stone-pelting that led to a number of leaders and workers and policemen getting injured.
Chowdhury alleged that the Congress has been denied the right to give a deputation to high-ranking police officers.
"I had spoken to the state police director general (G.M.P. Reddy) and informed him about the deputation to Nabanna. He said that as he had some other work, he will get some other officer to accept the deputation.
"But today (Monday), he rang me and told me that the state police directorate had been shifted to Bhawani Bhavan (in south Kolkata). And so, police will receive the deputation at Bhawani Bhavan and not at Nabanna," said Chowdhury.
The Congress leader, a former union minister, said that as per the West Bengal police website, the director general's office was at Nabanna.
"I think under the directive of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the DG is now singing a different tune."
Chowdhury warned that if police forcibly stop the rallyists, the chief minister and her administration will have to bear the responsibility for any law and order problem.
"But I want to make it clear that we won't be carrying stones or bombs. Our programme will be peaceful," he said.
Chowdhury said the Congress would take its movement to New Delhi, by organising a demonstration in the national capital.
