Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi apparently to seek release of the State’s financial dues on account of MNREGA, rural housing, health and rural road infrastructure projects, State Government sources said.
The meeting will take place at 11 am on December 20, an official at the State administrative headquarters Nabanna said, adding the Chief Minister would leave for the national Capital on December 17.
Banerjee had earlier told a rally that she would stay in Delhi between December 18 and 20 when she had sought the Prime Minister’s appointment. “I hope he will give me an appointment,” she said earlierat a rally.
The Chief Minister who was addressing a rally in North Bengal on Tuesday continued her tirade against the BJP Government asking it to “either release the State’s dues or quit power.” Alleging that the Centre collected away all the taxes from the State but never returned its dues, the Chief Minister said, “earlier we had cess, sales tax so that we could raise our own funds but subsequently the GST regime started under one-nation-one-tax system … in the new scheme of things the Centre takes away all the taxes … even if you go to a restaurant they will take a tax of Rs 30 where the bill is Rs 100 … if you purchase a saree worth Rs 100 then they will take Rs 50 out of it as tax … but they will never return the State’s dues from the GST.”
Once again alleging that the Centre had blocked Rs 1.15 lakh crore of the State, Banerjee said, “they are not giving money to the workers in MNREGA scheme, they are not giving money for PM Awaas or rural road and health infrastructure thereby impeding development … I will meet
the Prime Minister and ask for the immediate release of this money … either you release our funds or leave your seat.”
Referring to the upcoming meeting between the two leaders, Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday said that “it is the greatness of the Prime Minister who always shows high regard for the country’s federal structure by allowing such appointments … so this meeting is nothing new … if the Chief Minister can convince the Prime Minister that all the earlier central grants had been honestly disbursed … if she can account for the earlier funds then there is no reason why Modi ji will not listen to her prayers.”
Adhikari also promised to counter all the points raised by the Chief Minister in her letter to the Prime Minister. “If the letter that she will give to Modi ji is made public then I will reply it point by point,” Adhikari said alleging how the Chief Minister who was complaining against the Centre for depriving Bengal herself was “depriving the people of North Bengal by not implementing
developmental projects in the region.”
The non-BJP opposition on the other hand called the proposed meeting a “prelude to strike some clandestine deals to share seats in the upcoming general elections in lieu of a deal in favour of Abhishek Banerjee,” the nephew of the Chief Minister who was presently being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation for his alleged role in a series of scams.
