Mamata Banerjee on Thursday called the Narendra Modi dispensation at the Centre “Ravan’s government”, accusing it of having crossed all limits of decency and tearing into it over the alleged ill-treatment of protesting farmers.
The Bengal chief minister also said she had decided to postpone her Punjab visit to prioritise support for the cultivators’ movement.
“The farmers are protesting, the nation is burning. The BJP cannot be less bothered. It is Ravan’s government, which has crossed every Lakshman Rekha, every limit of decency,” Mamata told the Bengal Assembly in her address during the discussion on the state budget.
“Their rule is worse than the Dark Ages… akin to the misrule in Pakistan, the regimes of (Adolf) Hitler, (Nicolae) Ceausescu,” said the Trinamul Congress chief.
“They don’t do anything… everything is dumped on state governments. Then they do their Mann Ki Baat (Modi’s address-the-nation programme),” she added. “The day farmers reach Delhi with their black flags… when they take over the national capital, then the BJP might understand what the reality is.”
The protesting farmers have been demanding a law on minimum support price, besides debt waivers, and implementation of recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission.
“I was going to visit Punjab. But in view of the ongoing farmers’ protests, I have decided to postpone it. I have conveyed this to (AAP chief) Arvind Kejriwal,” said Mamata, who was scheduled to visit AAP-ruled Punjab on February 21, for meetings not only with the AAP’s Delhi chief minister Kejriwal and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann but also the leadership of the newly regenerated farmers’ movement.
During the two-day trip, she was also planning to offer prayers at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Trinamul and the AAP have been expressing their bitterness over the inordinate delay in seat-sharing parleys by the Congress in the INDIA bloc. Both the parties had almost declared their intentions to contest the general election solo in the states they wield influence.
“I think, at this moment, our foremost priority should be to stand by our farmers,” said Mamata.
The Trinamul chief also announced the decision to defer till the end of the month the disbursement of funds for MGNREGA job card holders deprived by the BJP-led Centre.
“I had said that the money for the 21 lakh MGNREGA workers would be released by February 21, but it will take a few more days… about a week or so,” said Mamata, who had announced earlier this month her decision to use money from the state exchequer to compensate the deprived job card holders, whose wages have been frozen by the Centre for a long time. In the state budget, presented on February 8, her government had earmarked Rs 3,700 crore for the 21 lakh job card holders.
“But we found out that the number of such workers actually stands at 24.5 lakh, and there is some procedure that is to be followed to bring additional people under the ambit of the disbursal, such as by way of bank accounts and paperwork,” said the
chief minister.
“So we will do it by March 1,” she added. “In addition, as promised, if the Centre does not release funds for the 11 lakh Awas Yojana beneficiaries by the end of April, we will give them the funds from
May 1.”
