Centre ‘a cruel govt’, Gujarat will never rule Bengal: Mamata day after PM’s attack

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday slammed the Centre, calling it “a cruel government” for its “meagre advance” to the state after Cyclone Amphan, and said “Gujarat will never be able to rule Bengal”.

Banerjee also took on the Opposition for criticising her vote-on-account and saying it was done with an eye on the polls.

Speaking on the last day of the concluding session of the 16th West Bengal assembly, on the Rs 2.99 lakh crore vote-on-account presented by her, the chief minister said it was done for the welfare of the people, and claimed her party would return to power in the state in the coming assembly polls.

“Even if it (the vote-on-account) is what the opposition is saying, where is the problem? It is for the welfare of the people. Some are saying we are there for a few days. We will be back with a huge mandate,” she asserted.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a no-holds-barred attack on the Mamata Banerjee government, had on Sunday charged the TMC with “committing several fouls”, including “misgovernance, violence, corruption and attacks on beliefs”.

In his first poll rally in West Bengal ahead of Assembly elections in the state, the PM used a football analogy to say that once elections are over, the people of the state will show the Ram card (red card) to the TMC.

“Bengal is a football-loving state. I want to say in the language of football that the TMC has made several fouls, including misgovernance, violence, corruption and attacks on beliefs. People of Bengal are watching and soon they are going to show the Ram card (red card) to the TMC,” he said.

Reacting to the Prime Minister’s charges, Banerjee said she had never seen such a “cruel” government as the one headed by him at the Centre.

“Now that polls are round the corner in West Bengal, it seems that there is nothing else for BJP but Bengal. In this election, all its leaders and ministers are coming to places in the state of which they do not even know. Gujarat will never be able to rule Bengal,” she said.

Further criticising the Central government, she said the PM during his visit to the state after the devastating cyclone Amphan had announced a mere Rs 1000 crore.

“That money too was given as advance. I have never seen such a cruel government. We had to spend more than Rs 2542 crore over and above the last budget to meet the situation due to Cylone Amphan and Covid-19,” she said as she presented a supplementary budget on it.

The session concluded after clearing the vote-on-account, which was presented on February 5, and the supplementary budget.

Earlier in the assembly, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said that her government has sent names of 2.5 lakh farmers to the Centre for inclusion in PM-Kisan scheme but they were yet to get any benefit. She also sought to know why the Union government has yet not disbursed any cash benefit to these eligible beneficiaries under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna.

Her remarks came a day after PM Modi slammed the TMC government for not implementing several of the Centre’s schemes, such as PM Kisan and Ayushman Bharat, in West Bengal.

(With PTI inputs)