Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday mounted fresh attacks on the Centre for blocking State's funds and admitted her Government's folly in supporting the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime that had reduced the States' say and control over the taxes.
Banerjee who flagged off from Singur the much touted Pathashree project for constructing 12,000 km of roads in rural Bengal said she had supported the GST Bill because she thought that it benefit the State but I'n real terms it turned out to be the opposite.
"I thought that GST would finally become beneficial for us but now we realise that we had done a mistake by supporting it ...
"This is because the Centre is misusing it's provisions by collecting all the taxes from our State but not giving us a farthing," Banerjee said at the meeting organised at Singur once the hotbed of her land movement which finally saw the Tata Motors abandon it's nearly-completed Nano car project.
Alleging that the Centr had stopped funds meant for MNREGA, OBC scholarship, Prime Minister's Awas Yojna etc Banerjee said she would continue to fight against the deprivation.
In fact the Chief Minister was scheduled to sit in a two-day dharna against issues like price rise, Centra deprivation increasing unemployment etc.
Taking a dig at the Centre for its alleged anti-poor policies Banerjee said, "it is an irony that you have to boil the free rice (provided by the government) on a gas that costs Rs 1149."