Top Left leaders, including CPI(M) state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra, were detained by police on Saturday for defying the ongoing lockdown after they staged a protest here, alleging anomalies in West Bengal's public distribution system and demanding an increase in the number of COVID-19 tests in the state.
Led by Left Front chairman Biman Bose, the leaders staged a demonstration in the Red Road area, demanding that the government take immediate steps to resolve the problems in the system and ensure ration for every family in the state.
"We are here to protest as poor people are not getting ration and starving in many parts of the state. The state government is only keen on hiding the issue. We want the administration to take immediate steps to solve the problems and ensure that each and every person gets ration," CPI(M)'s legislative party leader Sujan Chakraborty said.
The Left leaders also demanded that the number of tests for detecting COVID-19 be increased in the state.
Initially, the police tried to persuade them to call off the stir and leave the area, abiding by the lockdown imposed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.
However, as they continued to protest and kept shouting slogans against the Trinamool (TMC) Congress government in the state, wearing masks and holding up placards, they were taken into police vans, they added.
"We were adhering to the social-distancing norms while demonstrating, but the police flouted those rules when they detained us," senior CPI(M) leader and former MP Mohammad Salim said.
The opposition parties in the state have been alleging anomalies in the public distribution system, a charge denied by the ruling dispensation.
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