Demonetisation deaths: State gives jobs to next of kin of two victims

Mamata Banerjee government gave jobs to the next of the kin of two persons who had fallen victims to the hasty decision of Modi government to demonetise high value notes.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in the Assembly on Friday that her government is giving jobs to the wife of Kallal Roy howdhury and next to the kin of the tribal youth. Roy Chowdhury died after suffering cardiac arrest outside an ATM at Bandel and the tribal youth had died while standing in a long queue outside a bank at Kalna in Burdwan a few days ago.

Launching a scathing attack at the Centre once again for demonetising notes without any plan of action in place, Banerjee said: “I signed the files to give jobs to the next to the kin of the deceased before coming to the Assembly. Wife of Roy Chowdhury will get a job and a family member of the tribal youth who died in Kalna is given job in the state’s Panchayat department.”

Without taking the name of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister said: “There is nothing apart from tall tales when there are no banks in 92 per cent villages in the country. Instead of doing anything fruitful, now they are urging people to go for mobile banking.”

She said demonetisation would lead to food scarcity. Farmers, share croppers and workers are going through a “painful” condition due to the demonetisation of notes.

Since the Centre’s decision to restrict co-operative banks to deal with demonetised notes affected the agriculture sector badly including in Bengal, Banerjee said: “We should not forget that the co-operation movement had started in Bengal”.

She said the Centre is yet to release the fund for the ongoing projects of food security. Letters have been sent to the Centre in this regard. But the state is yet to get any reply. A letter would be sent again to the Centre in this regard. Digitisation of ration card is also a part of the project.

She further told the Assembly in connection with development taking place in the health sector that there are seven medical colleges and more than 5 will come up in the state.

There are 27,000 beds and at present there are 4,000 doctors and nurses. She urged doctors practicing in private hospitals and nursing homes to give at least 2 to 3 hours in state-run hospitals as there are shortage of doctors, which is also being addressed. Around 6000 doctors and nurses will be recruited.

In reply to a question on the infrastructure of blood banks in Sundarbans, she said Asansol, Jhargram and Kalimpong would be separate districts soon. Since Sunderbans is a vast area, it would also be a separate district.”

She maintained that there 16 central blood banks and 39 private ones in the state.”