Abhishek: Will financially help 70K women registered for old age pension from Jan 1

Kolkata: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Trinamool Congress MP from Diamond Harbour parliamentary constituency, Abhishek Banerjee promised that from January 1 2024, he will make arrangements to financially help about 70000 women in his constituency who have registered under the old age pension scheme of the state in the Duare Sarkar camps.

During a clothes distribution programme at Falta in his Diamond Harbour constituency, Abhishek said that due to some policy-related decision the state government has not been able to disburse the pension of about 70,000 women who had registered for the old age pension scheme.

“Till the state government is able to solve the issue, I assure that using our party workers and limited resources, I will ensure that financial assistance can be arranged for them from January 1, 2024. Not a single paisa will be taken from the state government,” he said.

Abhishek also reiterated his promise that he will also arrange to pay wages to the 100-day workers who were allegedly deprived by the Centre which blocked funds for Bengal.

Further, Abhishek said that he has come to learn that some persons have expressed a desire to contest from the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat. “Anyone is free to contest from Diamond Harbour, including leaders from Gujarat. After all this is the essence of democracy,” he remarked.

“Leaders From Gujarat and UP can contest from Diamond Harbour if they want, but I won’t allow anyone to disrupt peace here,” he added.

He reminded the electorates of the constituency that in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the difference in vote margin was 3,21,000. Falta itself contributed to 45000 votes which he expects will go up to 70000, this time.

He highlighted that ever since he was elected an MP in 2014, he always published performance reports every year to give people an account of the work done. “In 2015, I had started the Palta-Mathurapur water project at Rs 1400 crore. In three months, water will reach all households in all villages and blocks. Diamond Harbour will have no water problems soon. Also, a total of 170 roads were made. In the last nine years, Rs 600 crore were spent for roadworks,” he claimed.

Abhishek said: “Despite all efforts by the BJP to set ground here they could not even set up a party office in Diamond Harbour seat. If someone wants to divide Diamond Harbour on the basis of religion, I will not allow it till I am the MP here. BJP tried their best to defeat me using religious polarisation.”

Further, he alleged that the Central probe agencies are deliberately summoning him on days he is scheduled to attend party programmes, thus proving that such moves are nothing less than ‘vendetta politics’ by the BJP.

Abhishek said that the clothes distribution programme at Falta was scheduled for November 9 but the Enforcement Directorate chose to summon him on that day. Due to this, the event had to be postponed to November 10. “I was asked by the central probe agency to submit certain documents.

Even though I could have reached these documents through someone else I was asked to bring them in person. TMC has been pointing out how the BJP, which is not able to fight the TMC politically, is using central probe agencies to intimidate us. We will not be cowed down,” Abhishek said.

He added that every time he was scheduled to attend a party programme, the BJP attempted to foil it using ED or CBI.

“On September 13, I was supposed to attend the INDIA bloc coordination committee meeting in Delhi but I was summoned on that very day. Subsequently, when TMC was protesting in Delhi against the Centre’s fund blockade, attempts were made to ensure that I was prevented from attending it but I was determined to attend the protest on that day. Then again while I was sitting on a dharna outside Raj Bhavan in Kolkata, I was summoned,” he pointed out.

“I was being linked to a coal scam but the Supreme Court offered protection to me. Just because they are not being able to link me with the coal scam they are now trying to frame me in other cases. They are also harassing my family in a bid to build pressure on me,” Abhishek said.