Says TMC Govt not implementing Central schemes as there is ‘no cut money’
A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to scrap the Citizenship Amendment Act, the PM on Sunday slammed the critics of the CAA and took a swipe at the TMC-led State Government for not implementing Central schemes saying the State is doing so as these schemes do not help “syndicates” or involve “cut money”.
Delivering a speech at Belur Math, the headquarters of Ramakrishna Mission order, on the occasion of Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary, Modi said, “There are some people who are vehemently opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act… (but) it is not that the BJP Government has brought the Act overnight.”
Reminding how the persecuted sections of the minority communities in Pakistan were coming to India for shelter, he wondered if “the Government should push these persecuted and tortured people back to Pakistan to die there or give them shelter and provide them citizenship!”
Responding to the loud applause, the PM said, “You seem to have understood this very clearly, but the people who are playing politics do not realise this. It is not that they do not understand this but they are purposely refusing to do so … They are misleading the people about the real import of the Citizenship Amendment Act.”
Reminding that the CAA was not meant for taking away the citizenship of the people but to provide them with one, he said, “I repeat again, Citizenship Act is not to snatch, but to give citizenship,” reminding how “after the Independence, Mahatma Gandhi ji and other big leaders of the time all believed that India should give citizenship to persecuted religious minorities of Pakistan.”
At a subsequent function at Neta ji Indoor Stadium organised by the Kolkata Port Trust to celebrate its 150 years, the PM renamed the Kolkata Port as Dr Syama Prasad Mukherjee Port. Attacking the Mamata Banerjee Government for refusing to implement Central schemes like Ayushman Bharat, the PM said, “They (Trinamool Congress Government) have been depriving the people of Bengal from implementing the central schemes because such schemes do not involve syndicates, middle men and cut money.”
Claiming that his Government had transferred Rs 43,000 crore to the accounts of the farmers directly under schemes like PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, Modi said he did not know whether such schemes would get the nod of Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee or not.
Incidentally, the Chief Minister who met the Prime Minister at the Governor’s House on Saturday and inspected a public function together with him at the iconic Millennium Park by the Hooghly River on Sunday skipped the Port Trust programme.
“I announce the renaming of the Kolkata Port Trust as Dr Syama Prasad Mukherjee Port. He is a living legend who was a leader for development and fought on the forefront for the idea of One Nation, One Constitution,” said the PM, adding how “development of waterways has improved Kolkata Port Trust’s connectivity with industrial centres in east India, making trade easier with our neighbouring countries.”