‘Central leaders visit Bengal to lecture when state does all work’

After Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed that Bengal has made the slowest progress in providing tap water connections under the ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Wednesday, hit back alleging that the Central leaders only come to Bengal to lecture the state government which is doing all arrangements to provide tap water.

On Tuesday, during an event in Kolkata, Sitharaman accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) of depriving the poor from the benefits of Central schemes for the sake of politics, asserting that a line needs to be drawn somewhere. To back her allegations, she said: “Bengal has the slowest progress in providing tap water connections under the Jal Jeevan Mission. The national average is 74 per cent, but in water-rich Bengal, it is just 43 per cent.”

She also accused the TMC-led state government of depriving the poor of Rs 5 lakh worth health benefits under the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat scheme while adding that about 25 lakh fake MGNREGA job cards were issued in Bengal which forced the Centre to block funds to the state due to

corruption “because it is taxpayers’ money”. She alleged that works not permissible under MGNREGA were taken up in the state using the fund that was given to the Bengal government.

During a distribution programme in Bankura on Wednesday, Mamata Banerjee said that the BJP’s leaders from Centre come to Bengal to lecture the state government despite the state making all arrangements to provide tap water connections. She questioned: “I want to ask them who is providing 40 per cent of the amount? Who is maintaining, who is giving pipes or land for the tap waters? It’s the state government.”