West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (File)
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday once again slammed the Centre over the PNB fraud case, saying that it is making banks “cashless” instead of introducing cashless economy. Addressing a public meeting at Gangarampur in South Dinajpur district, Mamata said: “Now there is the BJP, which works as an agent of zamindars. They are looting thousands of crores of rupees and giving long speeches. On one hand, they are announcing notebandi (demonetisation) like Mohammad Bin Tughlaq and on the other, they are introducing GST, which has made business difficult to run for small traders.”
Continuing her rant, the chief minister said: “In its attempt to introduce a cashless economy, the Centre has turned banks cashless. They are looting money from the pockets of commoners and now they are turning banks cashless. Will people deposit money in banks now? Will they go for fixed deposits?” she asked.
The chief minister reiterated that the Centre does not make a great deal about industrialists who have defaulted on loans but take action against farmers who are defaulters. “About 12,000 farmers have committed suicide across the country after failing to repay bank loans, especially in states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Today the Centre is saying they will double the farmers’ income. How will they do it and is there a plan for it? We have always asked the Centre to relieve farmers of their bank loans so that they don’t commit suicides. It causes a great deal for them to provide a mere Rs 50,000 loan to farmers. But when some individuals get loans worth crores of rupees and get away with it after indulging in corruption, then why is it not seen as a big deal for the Centre?” Mamata asked.
Attacking the BJP for indulging in “communal politics”, Mamata said that during elections they would seek votes from people and after that, they would seize land from farmers. “At the time of election, they indulge in communal politics. They will say give votes to BJP because I am a Hindu and you are a Muslim. When the election is over, they will seize lands of default farmers and will love default crorepatis and give them shelter. We cannot tolerate this,” she said.
Mamata alleged that the Centre was charging cess from people to compensate banks, which have incurred losses. “The Centre takes cess from everyone. When there is a fraud in a bank, they ask people to give fraud cess, which means it will take money from the people to compensate banks. This is what is happening in the country. My government since coming to power has not increased tax on people. We never burdened people with too much tax. We don’t ask for tax from people to run our welfare schemes,” she said.
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- Feb 22, 2018 at 2:17 pmBanks are in the hands of fraudsters, banks are being controlled by fraudsters, banks are meant for fraudsters. This is the situation in India. Lastly – PNB fraud of Rs. 11,400 crore is nothing when compared to 2G scam, Coal scam etc. Finally – India Zindabad, Fraud Zindabad, Scams Zindabad, Fraudsters Zindabad, Scamsters Zindabad. By all means - it is evident that public money is FREE for all Looters, Fraudsters, Scamsters etc. Common-man and poor-man are there to bear all these and several other unsurfaced losses.Reply
