West Bengal is now like a ‘gas chamber’, says Guv Dhankhar

New Delhi: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has condemned the continuous spree of violence in Mamata Banerjee-ruled state West Bengal and said the province has become a ‘gas chamber’.

“The state has become a gas chamber, and this I shall not tolerate,” he said at a function at Barrackpore organised on the occasion of the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

“I cannot allow the state to be bloodstained,” he said. He asserted that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should work according to the Constitution.

“I shall request the Chief Minister to take out time and sit for discussion. There is no place for conflict in democracy,” he said even as Trinamool Congress MPs have started raising the issue of Governor’s powers in the context of the Budget session that got underway today (Jan 31) with the Presidential address to the joint sitting of Parliament.

“In a democracy, people who are sitting on the top should work in tandem so that it can help the people in general. There is no place for arrogance in democracy. The way the Chief Minister makes comments on the Governor is not correct. We should sit for discussion and find a solution to it,” Dhankhar said.

Dhankhar also complained that the Chief Minister has not replied to any information sought by him for the last two years.

“The bureaucracy (in Bengal) is politically committed. Are they to follow the diktats of an individual?” the Governor wanted to know.