Amit Shah asks Mamata to account for Central funds, says it was spent on illegal business
Kolkata: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah, on Tuesday, demanded an account from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee about the expenditure of the central funds provided to her government.
Lashing out at the Trinamool Congress supremo over the rampant syndicate Raj in the state, he alleged that the central funds were spent in the illegal business of supply of raw materials.
According to Shah, the Modi government has increased the amount of central funds more than double to the state government.
Addressing a meeting at the ICCR auditorium he said, "Earlier the West Bengal government used to receive Rs 1,32,783 crores as grants from the Centre. Ever since the Modi government came to power, Rs 3,59,406 crores are being sent to the state government."
Showing a document, the BJP chief added, "I want to tell Mamatadi, I have showed the statistics about how much we pay to her government. But who will explain where the funds have gone? Where have the funds gone? The entire grants get wasted in the syndicate business."
Referring to the people of West Bengal Shah mentioned, "You had brought a change in the state. You replaced the government of red with the government of the blue."
"You had also imagined that the violence would cease to exist. You had thought poverty would come to an end and the state would return to the path of prosperity once again. I want to know what has happened after seven years?,” Shah added.
Training guns on the UPA government over massive scams, Shah asserted that even an arch-rival like the Trinamool supremo in the opposition has failed to bring any allegation of corruption on the Modi government.
"Those were the days when cases of scams and corruption totalling around Rs 12 lakh crores surfaced across the country. All used to wait for the Prime Minister when he would break his silence. It was a government in which every minister used to consider themselves as the PM. None used to respect the PM in his role," he alleged.
Shah claimed, "Three years have passed since we came to power after the end of the government of corruption. None in the opposition, even Mamataji who is very much opposed to us, has levelled any complaint of corruption on us so far."
Earlier, Shah accused the ruling party of unleashing violence across the state after meeting around 93 people who were injured in the attacks allegedly by the Trinamool.
"I want to tell the people of Bengal: is this Bengal of Tagore and Vivekananda? What kind of culture is encouraged here? Those who carry their own political ideology are killed. A six-year-old girl has been shot at in her stomach. Even a doctor is failing to extract the bullet from her wound. Bengal can not move towards prosperity amidst such violence," the BJP president observed.
Countering the BJP chief Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee claimed that the Modi government has actually stopped releasing funds in various projects. According to him, the prosperity has been stalled in the state because of the BJP government at the Centre.
On the allegation of corruption Chatterjee said, "Those who sit on the peak of corruption and are surrounded by those who are also corrupted claim that there is no allegation of corruption against the central government."
The minister also accused the BJP of unleashing violence in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat to intimidate common people.
