Mamata further said that she hit out at the central government and said that the Centre only gives directives and paste posters, but the work has to be done by the states….reports Asian Lite News
After crashing out of the Niti Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi midway, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the Centre of “insulting Bengal” by interrupting her speech after five minutes, adding that it was a deliberate attempt to “malign the Opposition”.
Accusing the Centre of favouring BJP-ruled states by providing them privileges and packages, Mamata Banerjee said, “I said whatever I could in the 3 to 4 minutes that I got. In the entire country, the way in which all the opposition-ruled states have been neglected and BJP ruled states and their alliance members have been favoured, we don’t have any objection if any state is given more money but this is not acceptable that someone will get and someone will not get at all.”
The Chief Minister defended her decision of boycotting the meeting and said that she should have been given extra time as she was representing the entire opposition.
Mamata Banerjee said, “I was the only one from the Opposition ruled states who had gone there. They should have given me 30 minutes…At the beginning of the meeting, Rajnath Singh said that everyone should present their views in 5-7 minutes but I was not even given 7 minutes to speak. Their people were given 20 minutes, they got special packages and privileges but others got 0 minutes. I did the right thing by boycotting the meeting. I will not let them insult Bengal. I stand strongly with the Opposition parties running the government in other states.”
She further said that she hit out at the central government and said that the Centre only gives directives and paste posters, but the work has to be done by the states.
“Covid was handled by the states. The Centre only gave directives. Field work has to be done by states. All the incidents have to be handled by the states so if the states become paralyzed, then the Centre will also bear the brunt. Our 1 lakh, 71 thousand crore rupees is pending and this amount will rise. Food subsidy is stopped, payment for 100 days of work, Gramin Awas Yojana work is stopped. During the election, they said 3 crore houses have been built, all are lies,” she added.
Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee said,”He (Prime Minister) has been counting it (the houses built under PMAY) since Independence. Whatever roads have been built has been done by him, but he forgot that the BJP was not in power since Independence. While I was speaking, they continuously kept ringing the bell.”
The West Bengal CM further said, “Chandrababu Naidu presented his views for 20 minutes in the meeting, Chief Ministers of Assam, Arunachal, Chhattisgarh, and Goa also presented their views for 15-20 minutes but I spoke only for 5 minutes, and people started interrupting me by ringing the bell, I said okay, you don’t want to listen to Bengal and I boycotted the meeting and left because Bengal is being deprived and they don’t want to listen.”
She further said that she also spoke about the Indo-Bhutan River Commission.
“The water that comes from Bhutan in that North Bengal, Jalpaiguri, faces the flood. In the issue regarding Teesta waters, India and Bangladesh are involved but the stakeholder is Bengal. If Teesta Waters is gone, people of North Bengal will not get drinking water. Farakka Barrage and DVC have become dry, and dredging does not take place. DVC can hold more water upto 4 lakh cuses metric tonnes but due to lack of dredging even in less rainfall it gets flooded. Water enters Bankura, Hoogly, Birbhum, Bardhaman and Howrah,” she added.
Nirmala refutes Mamata’s claim
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday rejected West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s claim that her microphone was switched off while she was speaking at the NITI Aayog meeting and said that every chief minister was “allotted due time to speak”.
While speaking to reporters, the West Bengal Chief Minister alleged “political discrimination” and said that at the NITI Aayog meeting which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she was not allowed to speak for more than five minutes while other chief ministers were given more time.
“CM Mamata Banerjee attended the Niti Aayog meeting. We all heard her. Every CM was given the allotted time, and that was displayed on the screen, which was present before every table. We could see that two tables have a screen before us. She said in the media that her mic was turned off. That is completely false. Every CM was given their due time to speak,” the Finance Minsiter told ANI.
Sitharaman said that it is “unfortunate” that the West Bengal CM is making such claims, adding that the government is happy that West Bengal Chief Minister attended the meeting and she said that she is speaking on behalf of the opposition, i.e. INDIA bloc.
“It’s unfortunate that the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, has claimed that her mic was switched off, which is not true, and it is unfortunate because we’re happy that she participated in this meeting. She put forth her case, spoke for West Bengal and, as she said, spoke for all the opposition. But even as she was doing it and we were hearing, as per the procedure.”
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