Bulldoze my property if it has been acquired illegally: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: CM Mamata Banerjee, in her most spirited response so far to the various corruption allegations against Trinamool leaders and her family, said her property could be “bulldozed” if anyone could prove that it was “taken over” or acquired through corrupt means.
Banerjee, ordering a probe by the chief secretary and land and land revenue secretary into the allegations, said her Kalighat home stood on a thika tenancy plot that originally belonged to Rani Rashmoni’s family. “There have been allegations that the land has been taken from the government or I helped someone get government land. I have ordered an immediate probe. And, if the allegations are proved true, then I have told them to bulldoze the entire property without taking my permission,” she said.
“I would not have entered politics had I known it would degenerate to this level. I am not occupying the CM’s chair for any self-interest. I will not stay here if people don’t want (me to stay). I left railway ministry in one second, I left sports ministry (similarly),” Banerjee added, referring to her resignations from Union cabinets in 1993 and 2000.
“Now, there’s a notice against my family. But I’m not scared. I will fight this legally though I know it is tough. There’s too much BJP interference but I respect the law. I believe we’ll get justice. And, if I don’t get justice here, people will take the final decision,” she said.
Banerjee then addressed former Kolkata mayor and CPM leader Bikash Bhattacharya directly. “Bikash babu, instead of calling us thieves, why don’t you file an affidavit (in the HC) on the birth certificate scam (when the Left Front was in office)?” she asked, before addressing allegations from the BJP: “They are saying money from illegal coal-mining comes to Kalighat. Who does it go to, Ma Kali? Why don’t you name (the recipients)?” Banerjee asked, adding that all the queries on illegal coal-mining and cattle-smuggling should be placed to the Union home ministry.
“We’ve been in office for 11 years. What happened before that? You can fool one person once but you cannot fool everyone all the time,” she said, adding all the cattle coming here were from “UP, MP, Assam, Bihar, Delhi...”.
Replying to charges of corruption levelled at her and her family, CM Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said: “I have never seen such dirty politics. I do not like this politics of defamation, lies, use of unprintable words, not giving minimum respect to people.” She added the “politics of blackmail too had started”. “A section of the media is used as a weapon to defame without evidence.
Everyone is now being called a thief,” she said. “We used to have a joint family. But now we stay separately. Trinamool is my family. Do not try to defame my Trinamool family,” the CM said, distancing herself from her siblings and explaining how she lived away from them. “Only Abhishek’s mom sends me cooked food as I don’t have time to cook for myself.
But they, too, stay separately. I actually spend more time in adda with my brothers’ wives than with my brothers,” she added. “I get to meet my entire family only during festive occasions like bhai-phonta, Kali Puja or rakhi.” Banerjee spoke on how the media was being forced to toe BJP’s line after a TV channel reporter sought her response to agencies’ searches on the channel’s office for 80 hours. “Even our chartered accountants and those who file our income-tax returns are being searched and raided.”
The CM referred to memes on her poems and paintings by “CPM, Congress and BJP supporters”: “Why don’t you write as well? Who is stopping you? But what objection can anyone have if I have some spare time and my creativity prompts me to do something?” she asked.