In what the State Opposition called her clichéd trick before the elections to play on the minority community’s riot fears Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday assured a huge gathering of minority people that “though some people are trying dirty games to divide the society we will never allow any danga and riot to take place in Bengal.”
She was speaking at a Minority Department function. “There are some people who are trying to incite communal flare up in the State. We will request the religious leaders to remain alert about that,” said she Mamata, adding “we will never allow communal violence in Bengal.”
Apart from raising the riot bogey Banerjee showered sops worth `2,400 crore and “would have done many things more had we not have to part with thousands of crores to pay interests of loans taken by the previous left Government.”
Insisting that she was ready to grant recognition to Madarsas sans funds as “we do not have the funds now but may give them when situations improve,” the Chief Minister announced a grant of `25 lakh for a Madarsa at Kharagpur as “I want your children to become doctors and engineers” like the way “we have made provisions where this year the State has seen 25 per cent candidates from the backward community including yours’ succeeding in the West Bengal Civil Services Examinations.”
Attacking the left for doing nothing for the minorities the Chief Minister said, “They had a budgetary provision for `472 crore for the minorities but we have increased that five-fold to `2,400 crore” declaring her Government had placed orders for procuring 40 lakh cycles to be distributed among the poorer students.