West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that she will hold a two-day sit-in demonstration in Kolkata from March 29-30 in protest against the BJP-led Centre’s “discrimination” against the state.
She alleged that the state is yet to receive “pending dues under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana” and that the state got nothing in this year’s Union Budget, which was presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1.
“In protest against the Centre’s discrimination towards Bengal, I will stage a sit-in demonstration under the statue of Dr B R Ambedkar from March 29 and continue it till the evening of March 30,” Banerjee told reporters on Monday.
“Despite doing excellent work in the 100-day job scheme under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, we have been denied our genuine central dues. We are yet to receive our pending dues under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. We have spent money from our own exchequer in setting up 12,000 km of additional rural roads. We have received international accolades for our successes. But still, we have been denied our legitimate dues. Even in this year’s Union budget, there is nothing for the state government,” the CM added.
The CM also hit out at the Centre on the removal of Mehul Choksi’s name from Interpol’s Red Corner Notice List, and alleged that billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani and Mehul Choksi are friends with those who run the country, and that the saffron party works only for those few people, reported ANI.
In a major setback to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and India’s efforts to get fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi back, the Interpol withdrew the Red Corner Notice (RCN) issued against him. Choksi, who fled India in 2018, is the key accused in the Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank
RCN is issued against fugitives and is considered a request to law enforcement agencies across the world to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action.