Siliguri: Expressing her condolences over the death of a secondary school student who was attacked by an elephant when the victim was en route to the examination hall on the first day of the Madhyamik examination on Thursday West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offered her government helicopter to the family members of the deceased to come to Kolkata.
"I have heard that the mother of the deceased is unconscious. I have asked the family members to use my helicopter to come to Kolkata and instructed the administration to prepare the ICCU at SSKM," she said. The CM was speaking to reporters at North Bengal Branch Secretariat Uttarkanya after completing a three-day visit to North Bengal on Thursday and expressed her condolences to the student's family. Banerjee said that she was shocked by the incident.
Chief Secretary Harikrishna Dwivedi, who was with her, was asked by the Chief Minister to monitor the whole matter. The Chief Minister has also directed Siliguri Mayor Gautam Deb, Jalpaiguri District Magistrate Moumita Godara Bose, and Siliguri Police Commissioner Akhilesh Chaturvedi to meet the deceased's family. However, the Chief Minister attributed the abnormal increase in the number of elephants in North Bengal to such incidents.
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"I have asked the Education Department and directed them to arrange busses to ease the commute for the students so that the students would not need to walk through the forest area. I will also ask the forest department and the police to be attentive to prevent such incidents," she said.
The Chief Minister also talked tough on the bandh called in the hills and said, "I closed the policy around 11 years ago and freed Bengal from the politics of bandh. Ten people will block the road and thousands of people will suffer which is not acceptable. The Chief Minister also slammed the Green Tribunal for allegedly not taking any steps to curb the number of elephants in the area.
