West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee will visit Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district on Monday, December 30, to chair a public distribution programme.

This will mark her first visit to the island, situated on the Sundarbans border, since widespread protests earlier this year over alleged land-grabbing and sexual harassment by local TMC leaders.

Banerjee had said on Thursday that she would visit Sandeshkhali on December 30 to chair a public distribution programme.

She mentioned that people had asked her before the elections if she would visit Sandeshkhali, to which she had replied that she would go later. The chief minister spoke to reporters at the state secretariat Nabanna.

“We have completed several pending programmes under ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’, ‘Banglar Bari’ and other schemes. Around 20,000 beneficiaries of the area will be benefitted from various state-run schemes. I hope to hand over certificates of various schemes to around 100 people from the stage,” the chief minister had said.

Earlier this year in January, Enforcement Directorate officers were assaulted and their vehicles damaged while attempting to raid the residence of local TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan in Sandeshkhali, in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution scam.

Why was Sandeshkhali, a river island in West Bengal, on the boil?

Following this, several women from the area accused Shahjahan and his associates of seizing large plots of land and sexually harassing them.

The allegations led the opposition in the state to intensify calls for the immediate arrest of Shahjahan and his men.

The BJP, CPI(M), and Congress had alleged that the ruling TMC administration was “providing protection” to Shahjahan and his men, while some TMC leaders claimed the opposition parties, united for the Lok Sabha elections, were making false allegations against Shahjahan.

Banerjee had said that an “incident was staged” in Sandeshkhali, accusing the BJP of “scriptwriting” it, along with the ED.

However, the TMC suspended Shahjahan, who was arrested after evading capture for 55 days.

With PTI inputs