Times of India: Friday , August 26 , 2011.
KOLKATA: It took an order under the RTI Act to prod the government into tabling the probe report on Cooch Behar firing before the assembly.
So finally, the Dinhata Commission report which had not been published by the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government will see the light of the day. State chief information commissioner Sujit Sarkar on Tuesday passed an order in this regard, following a petition by social activist Utpal Roy. Law minister Moloy Ghatak received the order on Wednesday and decided to have the Justice N C Sil Commission report (on the police firing at Dinhata on February 5, 2008) tabled in the ongoing session of the House.
Even as the Commission of Inquiry Act 1952 entails that it is obligatory for a state government to place an inquiry report before the assembly within six months of submission of the report, the erstwhile Left Front government chose not to adhere to the Act.
The report was submitted by Justice N C Sil to the chief minister's office (CMO) on August 19, 2010, but the Left Front government feared that if the report was made public, it could snowball into a major issue, embarrassing the ruling alliance as it could have tainted Front partner Forward Bloc for inciting the firing, said an official.
Five days after the firing in Cooch Behar's Dinhata, a judicial inquiry by Justice Narayan Chandra Sil was ordered. Five Bloc supporters and a National Volunteer Force (NVF) jawan were killed. The magisterial inquiry revealed that police had been forced to open fire.
It said that police had fired on a 3,000-strong mob which was on a law violation programme, then home secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy had said.
Bloc supporters and activists had barged into the office of the Dinhata subdivisional officer and tried to set it on fire. They tried torching police vehicles as well. Police lathicharged and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the protesters. When that did not work, they fired 30 rounds. A National Volunteer Force (NVF) jawan was beaten up by the activists and he succumbed to his injuries a day later. More than 30 policemen were injured. Dinhata has been a stronghold of the late Forward Bloc leader Kamal Guha, who served as a Front minister for several years.
The firing created a furore, with the opposition - along with Left Front constituents RSP and CPI - demanding a judicial inquiry. As a damage-control measure to soothe the frayed nerves of the Bloc, the government transferred two senior police officers. But the firing strengthened anti-CPM sentiments among the Front partners, Forward Bloc, RSP and CPI, who had formed an unofficial mini-Front within the Left Front at that time.
Social activist Utpal Roy, who had submitted a petition under the RTI Act 2005 to the principal secretary to the chief minister on August 8, 2010, seeking a photocopy of the Dinhata commission report, has been chasing the matter ever since. As the last government turned a deaf ear, he approached the state information directorate and the matter was heard on July 29 this year. Finally, on Tuesday, chief information commissioner Sujit Sarkar passed the order.
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