After visiting Sandeshkhali, NCW chief demands President's Rule in West Bengal
Kolkata, Feb 19: Accusing the West Bengal government of stifling the voices of numerous women in Sandeshkhali during protests against alleged TMC-led atrocities, National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Rekha Sharma on Monday demanded imposition of President's Rule in the state.
During the day, Sharma led a delegation of the commission to the restive area and said her visit was to instil confidence in women there so that many of them could come out and start speaking their minds.
The NCW chairperson alleged that the Mamata Banerjee government was trying to "suppress the voice of women so that the truth would not come out".
"After speaking to women in the area, I found out the situation here in Sandeshkhali is horrible. Several women narrated their ordeals. One of them said that she was raped inside the TMC party office here. We demand that President's Rule be imposed in Bengal. We would also mention it in our report," Sharma told PTI over the phone.
Asked to react to the TMC's allegations that the NCW is working under the influence of the BJP, Sharma declined to comment.
"Let them say whatever they want to, I don't want to comment on it," she said.
Sandeshkhali, a village in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, has been witnessing protests over alleged atrocities, including sexual abuse, by some TMC leaders against villagers and has triggered a fierce political blame game.
VIDEO | Here’s what NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma (@sharmarekha) said as she visited unrest-hit-Sandeshkhali today.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 19, 2024
“Women have said that they are afraid to talk about what they have faced. They cried in front of me today. Young girls have been sent outside from here… pic.twitter.com/82x048eOvG
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
