Protesting the latest round of fuel price hike by the Centre, Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday threatened to land up on Red Fort with her people.
“I have tolerated for long… The UPA government is taking away all our earnings, is repeatedly taking anti-people measures. I will land up at Lal Qila with my workers one day.”
Addressing a rally organised here to protest FDI in retail, she asked her party workers to launch door-to-door campaigns to expose the UPA government. “Don’t inconvenience people, don’t block roads but tell people who is responsible for their plight.”
In a Facebook post on Friday, Ms. Banerjee said the diesel price hike would affect the State transport undertaking and increase the subsidy bill by Rs. 40 crore annually.
Ms. Banerjee said the State should not have to beg... “Why should our government pay for the sins of the previous government... why should all our earnings be taken away to pay the interests of loans taken in the past?” she asked.
“We have been sucked in their vicious circle of sins and vices and we are paying the wages of their sins,” she said, quipping that even sage Valmiki was told to bear the burden of his actions.
Ms. Banerjee said she would not take names but it sounded funny when some Union Ministers made proclamations about ‘granting’ Central funds for rural projects. “They are giving back our money to finance rural projects in the State,” she said, adding over Rs 20,000 crore was being taken away annually from West Bengal as its share of central taxes.
On the forthcoming panchayat polls, she said the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was cosying up to the Congress. “Why are you [CPI(M)] in such a hurry to come back — why are you so greedy..,” she asked.