Mamata Banerjee in Cooch Behar on Tuesday. (Source: PTI)
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday slammed the BJP governments at the Centre and in Assam for driving out Bengalis in the name of implementing National Register of Citizens (NRC). She also said her government will shelter people driven out of Assam and Gujarat.
Addressing a public meeting in Cooch Behar, which borders with Assam, Mamata also expressed her anger over reports of people committing suicides after their names were excluded from the “genuine voters” list.
“The ruling party at the Centre, which is also in power in Assam, has started driving out Bengalis. This does not happen in Bengal. Here, we love Assamese, Bengalis, Biharis, Nepalis, refugees, minorities and people belonging to backward castes. What is happening in Assam today? Names of 40 lakh people have been excluded from the list of genuine voters. As a result, people are committing suicides. While Bengalis are being driven out from Assam, Biharis are being driven out from Gujarat,” she said.
The rape of a 14-month-old girl in Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district on September 28 and the subsequent arrest of a labourer from Bihar for the crime led to sporadic incidents of violence against Hindi-speaking people in the western state.
“If my brothers and sisters… are being subjected to persecution, then we will give them protection. We will stand by them if no one gives them support. We will love them and provide them shelter in our own way,” she added.
Mamata also accused the BJP of trying to “distort” the country’s history to create a rift among people on religious lines, PTI reported.
“Those trying to distort our secular history should know that the people of Bengal will neither encourage nor allow divisive politics,” she said. However, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh termed the allegations as “baseless”, according to PTI.
“It is the TMC which has created a rift in Bengal by pursuing appeasement politics. The BJP believes in development for all. In Assam NRC was undertaken to drive out infiltrators whom parties such as the TMC are trying to use as votebank,” Ghosh said.
Meanwhile, the chief minister also criticised the NDA government for allotting less funds for its ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ scheme.
“There is only advertisement for ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ but no funds. The Centre allotted only Rs 100 crore for this scheme for beneficiaries across the country. A large portion of that money is spent on advertisements. A girl does not even get 3 paisa. Here, we have spent over Rs 6,000 crore for Kanyashree scheme. The Centre must learn from Bengal,” she said.
Turning to Cooch Behar, she spoke of distribution of land right documents in the area and claimed her government was working hard to give beneficiaries their due.
Bangladesh and India had exchanged 162 “adversely held” enclaves on August 1, 2015, ending one of the world’s most complex border disputes that had lingered for seven decades since Independence.
In Cooch Behar 111 Indian enclaves, spread across 17,160 acres, became a part of Bangladesh territory and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves, comprising 7,110 acres, joined India.
The enclave residents were allowed to either reside at their present location or move to the other country.
The chief minister chairing an administrative meeting on Monday had asked the district officials to speed up the process of handing over land documents to enclave dwellers.
If necessary, an ordinance would be issued to speed up the process, she had said. WITH PTI
‘9,000 Assam residents applied for Madhyamik admit card copy’
Around 9,000 residents of Assam have applied for duplicate Madhyamik admit cards from the state education department to prove their citizenship. West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) president Kalyanmoy Ganguly said his department is working on war footing to complete the task of issuing duplicate admit cards.
“We have received about 9,000 applications from Assam, requesting duplicate Madhyamik admit cards. So far, we have issued admit cards to 6,000 applicants… These applicants are actually from Tripura, who later migrated to Assam. However, they passed the Madhyamik or secondary examination under WBBSE before 1973. We received these applications from our state secretariat Nabanna,” Ganguly told The Indian Express.
The move comes after the names of these people were excluded from Assam NRC. Ganguly said Madhyamik admit cards are sought after as the date of birth is mentioned in the document.