'To curb surge, will urge EC to stop outsiders from campaigning here'
Burdwan: Squarely blaming BJP for exacerbating the COVID-19 situation in the state, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee said she will call upon the Election Commission to stop the saffron party from bringing in "outsiders" during campaigning for the ongoing Assembly polls.
Adressing an election meeting here, Banerjee added that the the BJP brought in people from "worst-hit" states like Gujarat for erecting marquees for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's poll rallies.
"I will tell the EC to stop the inflow of outsiders from states like Gujarat who are responsible for the COVID-19 surge in Bengal.
The TMC chief countering the "jumlas" claimed to be spread by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his speech in Bengal on a "poll day", Banerjee on Saturday said that he must apologies to the people for misleading them by telling incessant lies. Modi on Saturday, while addressing a public rally in the state on the day of fifth phase of elections, claimed that women are unsafe in Bengal and people here are deprived of the Centre's schemes.
Accusing Modi of lacking courage of replying to questions put before him as he was ignorant about the real facts in Bengal, she said: "I will, however, correct all your mistakes as you spread lies, which is called jumla in Hindi, to mislead people on the days of elections here."
She stated that Modi's claim about no fast-track court in Bengal is wrong as there are 88 fast-track courts including 45 for women and 19 human right courts. A chargesheet of a case of sexual assault at Balurghat was filed in just three days time.
According to TMC, Bengal witnessed 21 per cent drop in crime against women with the setting up of more than 65 women police stations between 2014-2019 when it has gone up by 56 per cent, 39 per cent and 33 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan respectively.
Meanwhile, lambasting the Prime Minister for his claim that TMC government was standing as a wall between the Centre and people of Bengal as "ration sent by the Centre was stolen by TMC workers during Covid relief work", TMC claimed that the Bengal government has provided potatoes at Rs 25 per/kg through Sufal Bangla stores even during Amphan and the pandemic. "Free rations have been extended to 8.5 crore people till June 2021. The Centre only gave rations till November 2020. Before talking about stolen money, first give us the Rs 77,000 crores you owe us as unpaid dues. This includes Rs 32,310 crore SDRF dues for supercylcone Amphan when the damage is Rs 1.02 lakh crore," Trinamool Congress claimed.
With Modi once again claiming that "Bengal is opposing PM-KISAN scheme for farmers", TMC stated that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had written two letters to the Union Agriculture Minister for starting the PM Kisan programme in the state. The state government has also sent names of 2.5 lakh farmers to the Centre. But no amount has been disbursed by the Centre so far. Instead, farmers' income has tripled in Bengal and they are already getting benefitted out of the Krishak Bandhu scheme.
Claiming that 32.65 crore mandays were created under MGNREGA till the 2020-21 fiscal, TMC set aside Modi's claim that the people of Bengal were deprived of the benefits under the scheme.
In reply to Modi's claim that no development has taken place in Bengal in the past 10 years, TMC stated that the state Budget has increased by three times in the last decade from Rs 84,804 crore in 2011 to Rs 2.55 lakh crore in 2020. The average per person income has increased from Rs 51,543 in 2010 to Rs 1,09,491 in 2019.
