Trinamool member alleges party workers killed during Left rule

New Delhi, April 30 (IANS) Trinamool Congress member Kunal Kumar Ghosh Monday alleged in the Rajya Sabha that human skeletons were being recovered of party workers killed during the Left Front government in West Bengal and urged the union home minister to give information about the action taken by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in the cases.

Raising the matter in the Rajya Sabha with the permission of the chair, Ghosh said he wanted to speak "on an important issue of regular recovery of human skeletons and mass graves in West Bengal".

"You can see this only in West Bengal and nowhere in the country. All those people have been killed during the time of former government. They have been killed only because they were Trinamool Congress supporters and were not supporting the earlier government," Ghosh said.

Ghosh, who faced interruptions from Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) members, questioned the role of NHRC.

"My question is what was the role of NHRC then. In how many cases they visited the spot and what steps they have been taken."

He said NHRC should tell what it had done in West Bengal for the past 34 years.

"I request the home minister to inform the house about the role of NHRC regarding all those cases."

He said in the recent past "apart from mass murdering, mass graves have been recovered. Fifteen cases of 60 skeletons have been recovered."

As Ghosh again referred to the previous government, P.J. Kurien, who was in the chair, asked him not to level allegations.

CPI-M leaders, including Sitaram Yechury and Tapan Kumar Sen, strongly objected to Ghosh's remarks and said they should be allowed to respond.

Ghosh, who was supported by his colleague S.S. Roy, placed a picture on the table of the house but was asked by the chair to take it back.