Black money: Mamata lashes out at Centre

Without taking the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said he had failed to bring back the black money kept in foreign banks and now his “arbitrary and heartless” decision has dire financial distress.

“The common people are suffering and he has gone to Japan,” she said.

She said because of the hasty decision, tea garden workers could not get their wages. Tea garden owners have written to the state chief secretary Basudeb Bandopadhyay who was looking into the matter. There are 2.5 lakh tea garden workers in the state and 5 lakh in Assam. 

Banerjee said the banks did not have the man power to tackle the situation. The Centre should have carefully thought about the consequences before making the announcement. “You should think of the common people who cannot buy essential commodities because new currency notes are not available,” she said.

She said: “We heard that large sums of black money had been kept in foreign banks and this money would be brought and used for the country’s development. But nothing has been done so far in the matter. On the other hand common people have been pressurised unnecessarily.”