KOLKATA: Cut money agitations took a violent turn at Kolkata and other parts of West Bengal in the last two days as the demonstrators are seemingly taking on the Trinamool local leaders whom they accuse of taking a commission for delivering public services.
On Sunday morning, a group of 150 odd people allegedly entered the house of a local panchayat member at Memari in East Burdwan district and assaulted her family members.
The panchayat member alleged that one of her relatives was molested in the incident.
At Chandrakona in West Midnapore district, residents pasted posters with the names of 19 Trinamool leaders who allegedly took cut money.
On Saturday at Gobardanga in North 24-Parganas, the people protested outside the police station and raised slogans against councillors for collecting cut money from the beneficiaries of the government’s welfare schemes.
A police constable received injuries on his head when the demonstrators and law-keepers clashed later.
The anger spread to Kolkata as locals chased a group of TMC leaders and their followers at Tangra on Saturday. In retaliation, the TMC men returned and a clash broke out in which three people were injured.
The locals claimed the trouble broke out when they demanded the cut money to be returned to the poor beneficiaries of the state government’s housing scheme.
After Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee issued a diktat in June asking TMC leaders to refund cut money, at least 80 incidents of agitations have been reported from across the eastern state.
On many occasions, Trinamool leaders had to give written declarations promising they would refund the money that they had taken from the beneficiaries.