West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday warned those trying to ‘conspire' against her and her government, saying that people would not pardon such conspirators.
“I am not engaged in any wrongdoing, but I do not tolerate any wrongdoing either, ” she said on a day when there was outcry in the city, over the arrest of a university professor who forwarded emails with a reference to the Chief Minister.
“I am not bothered about who is saying what to increase their TRP ratings,” she said.
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As a matter of fact, suspicions of ‘conspiracy' against her and alleged canards being spread by her detractors to discredit her was Ms. Banerjee's theme in her speeches throughout a day when she launched various programmes in Bardhaman and Purulia districts.
“You had your chance for 35 years — you did not work…we will keep you well, give you food, clothing and shelter,” she said in an indirect reference to the coalition that ran the previous government, even as she sent out an appeal to her detractors to let her government work.
The government will not tolerate any effort to derail its development agenda. “Development will be supported and so will the private sector if it does good work,” the Chief Minister said.
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“In a month, as we complete a year in office, we will have fulfilled all our poll promises,” she said, adding that the remaining four years would be spent in development. “West Bengal will go towards a golden era,” she told the cheering crowd that had gathered on the occasion of the launch of a hospital and a school project in Durgapur, the industrial town in the State's Bardhaman district. She exhorted the private sector group which had acquired 100 acres to implement the project to expedite matters and set up the facilities soon.
Laying the foundation stone for the integrated project, she said that while the diagnostic facilities are expected to be readied first, the hospital would follow. “It would be a general hospital which would be run by Dr. Devi Shetty — he is well-known. I hope people will now come to Durgapur instead of rushing to Vellore and Chennai for medical treatment.”
Airstrips & helipads
She also said that the government had invited expressions of interest (EOI) for setting up airstrips and helipads at smaller towns and one such was also proposed to be set up in the Durgapur-Asansol belt.
Later at another programme at Barjora in Bankura, Ms. Banerjee said that she believed in speed in her work and expected everyone else to complete their work fast.
She assured the gathering that industries would come up in this area and employment would be generated for everybody.
Launching a coal project, she said that for the first time a State agency, (the West Bengal Mineral Development Corporation) would be engaged in mining coal. An IT hub was also launched.
Backlog cleared
Earlier, she distributed caste certificates, claiming that a backlog of one lakh cards had been cleared by her government in months.