West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said the allegations raised by Union Home Minister Amit Shah against the Trinamool Congress government on several development parameters were “garbage of lies.”
“Amit ji , you are the Home Minister, and it does not suit you to shell out lies provided by your party workers without cross-checking,” Ms. Banerjee said. Asked about Mr. Shah’s response to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) where he said the Centre would consider it only after the COVID-19 vaccination was over, the West Bengal Chief Minister described the BJP as a “party of cheats.” “The CAA and NRC are not withdrawn. They are very much there,” Ms. Banerjee said, adding that she would not allow anyone being denied citizenship.
A day after Mr. Shah said West Bengal was lagging in several development indicators, Ms. Banerjee responded, “I will only speak on two things today. He said we are a zero in industry, we are number one in MSME. He also said, we have not made village roads, we are number one on that count too and this information has been shared by the Centre.”
Outreach programme
Meanwhile, speaking to journalists at the State secretariat, Ms. Banerjee said her government’s outreach programme ( Duare Sarkar ), started from December 1, had reached 1.12 crore people. “This is a new model not only in India but in the entire world. We have set up 20,000 camps in the past few days.” The Chief Minister announced a cash award of ₹5,000 (paid in two months) to State government employees who actively participated in the drive.
Ms. Banerjee said she would hold a rally at Birbhum on December 29. Mr. Shah held a road show at Bolpur in Birbhum on Sunday.
Central schemes
Responding to allegations that the State government was not implementing Central schemes such as the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, Ms. Banerjee said her government was willing to implement the scheme and funds should be transferred to the State government.
“The State government is already implementing a scheme of direct fund transfer to farmers including share croppers, with death benefit scheme, as had been enumerated in my letter under reference. More than 73 lakh farmers are to be benefited under the scheme,” Ms. Banerjee wrote in a letter to Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
The Chief Minister urged the Centre to kindly “arrange for transfer of funds” and added that after disbursement, a list of beneficiaries would be made available.
