Kolkata, Nov 23 (IANS) Two West Bengal ministers were Monday allegedly stopped from entering a hospital in the state’s Siliguri town by a group of opposition Trinamool Congress activists, and were later escorted in by police.
State Health Minister Surya Kanta Mishra and Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister Ashok Bhattacharya, both belonging to the state’s ruling Left Front major Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M), were obstructed by slogan-shouting Trinamool workers who were staging a sit-in before the office of North Bengal Medical College and Hospital superintendent.

The agitators stopped the ministers when they were about to enter the hospital premises. They also waved black flags and shouted slogans asking them to go back, sources said.

Later, the ministers were escorted into the hospital by a huge police contingent.

Condemning the blockade, CPI-M state secretary Biman Bose said such type of incident was completely against the democratic history of the state.

“This heckling of the two ministers is an attack on democracy and some people trying to destabilise the law and order of the state are triggering these types of incidents,” Bose said in a press communique.

He also urged the people to unitedly raise their voice against the incidents.

Bose said the CPI-M would take out protest rallies and hold street corner meetings across the state in protest the incident.