Agartala: Besides, suspension of activities under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), as many as 365 Anganwadi centres in Dasda, Damcherra and Jampui hill blocks of North Tripura have been closed down for the last three days following an attack and organized assault on Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) of Dasda Subinoy Bhowmik on Sept 30 last.
However, there is no arrest so far despite lodging specific complaints against the perpetrators, which irked the employees of the Social Welfare department, said victim CDPO Bhowmik adding unless they get adequate security and the accused are not being arrested the work would not be resumed.
The Superintendent of Police (North Tripura) Bhanu Pada Chakraborty said the investigation has been launched based on the complaints and all the accused persons were identified as women. “The accused will be arrested soon following all formalities and security has been beefed up in the areas and all other actions have been taken to bring normalcy and restore the confidence of the people especially the government employees.”
This is the second incident of attack on government employees by the unruly civilians in Tripura within two weeks. And, in both incidents, ruling BJP cadres were accused of carrying out the attacks after failing to influence the officers for accepting their demands in the implementation of government projects.
According to the report, a group of women belong to a self-help group – Deen Dayal Swasahayak Dal’ demanding supply order for eggs and Soyabin have met the victim CDPO Bhowmik on Sept 30. They had allegedly been pressing for supply orders for all the Anganwadi centres without any tender but the CDPO refused to accept their demands.
Enraged by the refusal, members of the group had dragged down CDPO Subinoy Bhowmik from his vehicle in front of his office and beat him up severely before confining him to a room. Five employees including two lady employees were also beaten up while they tried to save the CDPO.
The officers and employees of ICDS had organized a demonstration in Kanchanpur last evening demanding immediate arrest of the attackers and accused police of adopting delayed techniques against the perpetrators, as all the accused are getting shield from the ruling BJP.
Meanwhile, the accused group had filed an FIR against the CDPO and employees of the ICDS project for attacking them in the office premise when they had gone to enquire about the tender process.
Earlier, on Sept 16 last a group of BJP workers had assaulted BDO Poangbari block of South Tripura along with nine other government employees including police personnel while they were holding an administrative camp in Madhab Nagar village to verify the records of the beneficiaries of Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY). However, after the intervention of the Chief Secretary police arrested the accused of the incident.
