West Bengal State Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of organising its “March to Nabanna” without permission and further stated the march was not within the permissible parameters of the Pandemic Act.

Thousands of BJP workers and activists in West Bengal participated in a march to the state secretariat to protest what it called “worsening law and order” in the state.

Bandopadhyay said that the government had not approved the march as the applicants for it had on Wednesday stated that several rallies would be conducted with each comprising of around 25,000 participants.

Bandopadhyay stated, “If several such rallies having such a large number of people had to be sanctioned/permitted/ allowed/or condoned that would be have been a travesty as per the National Disaster Management Authority Act or lockdown norms. If there had been few people it could have been navigable.”

He further added, “But the application distinctly mentioned a number (of participants) which we had considered rather huge and overwhelmingly higher than the permissible dimension under the regime of an epidemic that the Government of India instituted.”

As per a PTI report, parts of Howrah and Kolkata resembled a battle zone on Thursday and BJP workers clashed with the police, hurling stones, blocking roads and burning tyres to protest the killings of saffron party workers.

The action of the protestors forced the police in riot gear to burst teargas shells, beat up agitators and use water cannons to disperse miscreants.

Bandhopadhyay lauded police officials for handling the situation “patiently” though several of were injured in attacks on them.

Bandhopadhyay said, “Officers of Kolkata Police and state police did a commendable job to maintain peace by keeping their patience. We thank them. There were instigations and there were attacks on the police in which some policemen were injured. Firearms were also seized.”

He said that around 89 people had been detained in Kolkata while 24 people were detained in Howrah.

Enquired about the blue water sprayed on BJP cadres the Chief Secretary called it standard procedure and added that it was a colour used during Holi.

“This is an international practice. Coloured water is used to disperse agitators so that they can be identified after dispersals for further necessary actions as per the law if required,” he said.

Asked about the government’s decision to also allow women’s wing of the ruling party TMC to conduct a march, Bandhopadhyay stated that the BJP’s Yuva Morcha march was denied as the number of people in it were “higher than the allowable dimensions under the epidemic regime of the central government”.