In the Chief Ministers’ meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee raised the issue of the Centre targeting her State, sources in the State Government said.
The Bengal Chief Minister reportedly told the Prime Minister how her State administration was being singled out by the Centre at a time when all the sides should work in cohesion to fight corona pandemic.
Raising the issue of the Centre repeatedly pulling up Bengal for alleged dilution of lockdown protocols, the CM reportedly told the PM that her State had worked according to the central guidelines and hence it should not have been targeted the way it had been for the past several weeks.
Asserting that this was not the time to play politics Banerjee told the Prime Minister that the Central Government was working according to a “script.”
She raised the issue of the Inter-Ministerial Central Teams being sent to Bengal for a “hostile review” of the situations whereas the State Government was only following the rules made by the Centre.
She said that Bengal was a border State with a high density of population and hence the policies on the State should be made with care and caution, sources said.
Wondering why the Centre was not clearing the State’s dues she reportedly said that her Government had to bear huge burden of providing free ration to the entire population besides bearing the cost of treatment of the people.
She also said that no train fare should be extracted from the migrant workers who were returning from other States, sources said.
Earlier her nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee slammed the Centre for not consulting the Chief Ministers before the ‘lockdown one’.
“The Centre is holding meeting with the Chief Ministers before the lockdown 2 or lockdown 3 but it did not consult them before the lockdown 1 because it thought that the corona crisis will blow over on its own and then the Centre will be able to take credit for fighting it out alone… But now when the pandemic is spreading Centre is consulting the Chief Minister,” he said.