Children's Deaths vs Sandeshkhali: Trinamool Takes On Governor

The events at Sandeshkhali is threatening to spark yet another face-off between Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress and Governor CV Ananda Bose. With Mr Bose cutting shot his visit to Kerala yesterday to go to Sandeshkhali, the Trinamool has now demanded that he pay equal attention to the death of four children in north Dinajpur.

Earlier today, the Trinamool wrote to the Governor, seeking an appointment in connection with the death of the children in Chopra. They had died after falling in a pit dug for a drain yesterday and the party is accusing the BSF (Border Security Force) -- which was in charge of the drain project -- of negligence.

The party has also alleged that the drain expansion work was going on without sanction or consent of competent authorities.

The Governor had agreed to meet the party representatives on Thursday.

But now the Trinamool contends that he must show the same urgency in visiting Chopra as he did in the case of Sandeshkhali, where a group of women accused a local leader of the party of sexual exploitation.

The Governor had cut short a trip to Kerala yesterday to visit Sandeshkhali. After the visit, he said,  "What I saw was ghastly, shocking, shattering to my senses". "I cannot believe this could happen in Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore's land," he had added.

The Trinamool has accused the BJP of politicising the events at Sandeshkhail, an island in the Sundarbans close to the Bangladesh border.

"We condemn every rape but what about Bilkis Bano's case? Does rape have colour? Can you add colour and say this has been done because of division in religion?" said Senior party leader and Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.

NDTV has learnt that a five-member delegation of State Commission for Protection of Child Rights will visit Chopra tomorrow in connection with the incident.