Law and order in West Bengal generally stable : Governor

Kolkata, Mar 6 (UNI) West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi today said the law and order scenario of the state was ''generally stable,'' notwithstanding a few specific incidents.

Addressing the members of the State Assembly on the opening day of the Budget session, the Governor said the incidents of major crimes in the state had shown a marginally downward trend for the past few years and there was no major communal incident during the last year.

However, Mr Gandhi said there had been occasional disturbances along the Indo-Bangla border as also incidents of opening fire by the BSF.

He said though the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan boundaries remained more or less peaceful, there were attempts to disturb the emerging pro-democracy steps initiated in Bhutan by the Bhutan refugees in camps.

'' A number of attempts were made by these refugees to march into Bhutan through North Bengal but the alertness of the state police and SSB averted the crisis, '' Mr Gandhi said.

Referring to the activities of KLO and ULFA in North Bengal, he said such activities were on the decline as the security forces were active and made some strategic arrests.

Though there had been some agitations against the dominance of GNLF in the hill areas, the situation was being handled carefully, he said.

Talking about the Maoists, the Governor said though the ultras attempted to extend their areas of influence, the government had taken all steps to counter the extremists and made several important arrests during the past year.

Later, both Opposition Congress and Trinamool Congress branded the Governor's speech as a ''political document'', prepared by the ruling Left Front Government.

Leader of Opposition in the House Partha Chatterjee said, '' The Governor's speech does not reflect the true law and order situation of the state and match with his outrage against the Nandigram violence. '' Congress Legislature party leader Manas Bhuniya observed, '' it is a matter of shame that the Governor, who denounced the violence in Nandigram, only read out the praise of the State Government in his speech prepared by the Alimuddin Street. '' UNI ADG SJC YA HT1915