Kolkata: Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for leaving out Bengal from the 'Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan' by blatantly ignoring the concerns of 11 lakh migrant workers who
have recently returned to the state.
The Prime Minister launched the scheme on Saturday for 116 districts across six states - Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Rajasthan. But, Bengal has not been brought under its ambit despite more than 11 lakh migrants workers returning to the state after losing their jobs in different parts of the nation.
In a tweet, Banerjee stated: "Shri Narendra Modi Ji, why have you blatantly ignored the concerns of 11 lakh migrant workers from Bengal who have recently returned to their homes."
Strongly questioning the Centre's move, the Trinamool Congress MP further stated in his tweet: "Why has West Bengal been left out of the Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan? Why this apathy towards the people of Bengal?"
The Centre's apathy towards Bengal comes at a time when the Mamata Banerjee government has taken a series of steps to extend support to migrant workers.
She was the first Chief Minister in the country who wrote to her counterparts of 18 states soon after the lockdown was imposed to ensure safety of the people of Bengal who were stuck there. Besides paying for 255 Shramik Special Trains, the state government has also taken all steps so that they get jobs and do not have to move out of Bengal again.
According to political
analysts, the move of the Centre in introducing the scheme for migrant workers negating Bengal has once again
brought to light the step-motherly attitude of the Narendra Modi
government towards the
state as most of the state's requests seeking support to fight against COVID-19 pandemic has fallen to deaf ears and the Mamata Banerjee government had
to fight all of it on its own – be it arranging of PPE kits for the frontline fighters or health workers to providing financial support to returnee migrant workers who were stuck in different parts of the country through its scheme 'Sneherparash'.
Despite repeated requests the Centre is yet to clear around Rs 50,000 crore that it owes to the state and it made the fight for Bengal tougher with nosedive in revenue generation due to the lockdown. In such a situation, Bengal has been deprived of the 'Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan' scheme worth Rs 50,000 crore that will run for 125 days.