TMC MPs to submit memo against booth agent norm

Kolkata: A 10-member team comprising Trinamool Congress (TMC) Parliamentarians will meet the Chief Electoral Officer on Saturday to submit a memorandum regarding deployment of booth agents. The team will be led by Sudip Bandyopadhyay, TMC MP Derek O'Brien said on Friday at Trinamool Bhawan.

O'Brien said the team would protest against a notification issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on March 18 which allowed any registered voter to function as a polling agent in an area. According to the previous notification, a polling agent should have either been a voter of the area or an adjacent area. The TMC leader alleged that the norm was changed deliberately to help the BJP.

Calling Narendra Modi "the biggest cheater," O'Brien played the speech Modi had delivered after demonetisation was introduced on November 8, 2016. Modi had said he wanted 50 days to restore the situation. "Forget about 50 days, almost 5 years have lapsed and India is yet to come out of the economic blow, one of the most important events in the history of modern India," he commented. O'Brien said within half-an-hour after the ban was announced Mamata Banerjee had demanded that it should be withdrawn immediately as it was going to hit the Indian economy badly.

Taking a dig at Modi and Amit Shah for their statement that the 'BJP had made schemes and Trinamool made only scams', Derek said note ban was a scam.

'Beti bachao, beti padao' was another scam where no money was allotted for the scheme, he alleged.

"Ayushman Bharat was another big scam where people having a pucca house, smart phone, television set and two-wheeler would not be covered. On the other hand, the Kanyashree has earned global recognition.

"During the pandemic, the unemployment in Bengal has gone down as per Centre's announcement while Swasthya Sathi has benefitted more than one crore people," he claimed.