Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday lambasted the erstwhile Left Front government for ration card irregularities while acknowledging the role played by former state Food and Supplies minister Jyotipriya Mallick in digitisation of ration cards and weeding out bogus cards.
She claimed that much of the irregularities were cleaned up over seven to eight years.
Alluding to Jyotipriya who is now in ED custody for a case relating to alleged ration scam, she said: “Do you know how he had worked towards digitisation of ration cards? How 1 crore bogus ration cards that were rampant during the erstwhile Left government were weeded out. The Food Corporation of India had stopped the supply of foodgrains and the Food department started procurement of paddy directly from farmers which sparked a green revolution.”
Accusing the BJP at the Centre of targeting TMC, she said: “They are bringing charges and are arresting all ministers. It is an attempt not to let the Bengal government work properly. We have so many social schemes here, “ she said. Taking a dig at the erstwhile Left Front government, Banerjee questioned whether any investigation was held in connection with such bogus ration cards then and who were the beneficiaries of this.
“Middlemen used to sell ration meant for the common people elsewhere and we initiated several cases against such corruption and arrested and submitted charge sheets. We have tried to hand over those ration shops where we found irregularities to self-help groups etc but legal issues have delayed the process,” Banerjee said.
She maintained that actions are being taken against her party leaders due to political vendetta. “Had I wanted I could have taken action against many who were behind these irregularities during the previous Left Front regime. But I did not take any action since political vendetta is not in my nature,” she said.
Alluding to BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, she said: “We have not come out with documents against those owning 60-70 trawlers, a good number of cars and petrol pumps. But now we are looking for such documents. While serving as a Cabinet minister and being chairman of Haldia Development Authority, no one knows how much land was sold against huge money.”