Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday spoke about a recent demolition drive in Uttar Pradesh that claimed the lives of a mother and daughter to contrast the BJP-ruled state with Bengal where her government is offering free leasehold land to the landless.
“We don’t evict poor people in our state. We offer free leasehold land to them (the landless people). But in BJPruled Uttar Pradesh, they recently killed a mother and her daughter during an eviction drive,” said Mamata in Bankura to around 50,000 people at a government benefits distribution event.
“There is no justice for such crimes... Where are central teams now?” Mamata asked, referring to how the Centre sends the ED, the CBI and the I-T teams to nonBJP states and stays mum on crimes in BJP-ruled states.
On February 13, Pramila Dixit, 54 and her daughter Shiva, 22 died of burns during the demolition of their hut allegedly built on government land in rural Kanpur. Family members lodged a complaint, claiming someone from the demolition squad or a villager set the home on fire when the duo were asleep.
Though UP police initially claimed the women set themselves on fire, they later filed a murder case against 39 people, including government officials.
A source said Mamata chose to broach the Uttar Pradesh tragedy in Bankura as the district has been overwhelmingly voting for the BJP since 2019. In Bankura, the BJP won both the Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and eight Assembly seats out of 12 in 2021.
“It was part of her attempt to prove the ruthlessness of BJP governments in other states and her government’s pro-poor policies,” said the source.
Mamata, on principle opposed to forceful land acquisition and eviction of people from government land, is distributing free leasehold land to the landless for the last couple of years. The Bengal government offers pattas (leases) in three categories — to build dwelling units, to farm and to forest dwellers.
After she came to power for the third consecutive time in 2021, she focused on giving leasehold land rights to all landless people of Bengal. Her government has passed a bill to give land parcels on lease to people residing in about 300 refugee colonies in Bengal.
“Around 3,000 people from Bankura on Friday received leasehold land rights from the government,” said a Trinamul leader in Bankura.
“BJP will come only during elections for your votes. They have two MPs in Bankura. Most MLAs are from the BJP. What have they done for the people of Bankura? They did not do a single developmental work for the district... They (the BJP) are just like a cuckoo that lay their eggs in the nest of a crow and their chicks flee away once they grow up,” Mamata said before giving going into how the Narendra Modi government is allegedly depriving Bengal.
“Once, people in Bankura and other Jungle Mahal districts could not even come out of homes because of fear of Maoist insurgents.... Look at the change, there has not been a single incident of Maoist attack in 11 years,” added Mamata.
Mamata said the Centre withheld scholarships for OBC students.
“The reason is quite clear. There was a 17 per cent reservation (in OBC) for the minority community and around 97 per cent of Muslim students came under OBC category.... They stopped it completely. We launched Medha-shree to give scholarships to OBC students,” Mamata said.
Resolution in Assembly
The Assembly on Friday passed a resolution demanding recognition of Sari and Sarna as religious codes in the census, a longstanding tribal demand. The BJP did not oppose it but asked why the state government was bringing the resolution before rural polls.
