Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday again accused the BJP-led Centre of withholding Bengal’s dues in an apparent bid to justify the state’s lacklustre budget and the 3 per cent hike in dearness allowance (DA) that has irked many.
Mamata — who started a tour of Jungle Mahal — in her public speeches in West Midnapore and Purulia on Thursday, underscored that the Centre was largely to blame for Bengal’s financial woes.
“State government employees, teachers, and all others (eligible for DA) have been given a dearness allowance hike of 3 per cent from March.... Every section of people has its own problems, which have to be solved. But we are not magicians,” Mamata said in Midnapore amid signs that the DA protests would intensify.
The issue has been hotly debated since finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya’s announcement on Wednesday, as part of Mamata’s attempt to placate employees demanding DA on a par with their central government counterparts.
State government employees so far got 3 per cent DA, 35 per cent less than central government counterparts. The 3 per cent hike will bring down the gap to 32 per cent.
“The money has to be arranged for. Many say, ‘we got this, now give that, this was given, that is next’. In order to simply sustain what you just now got, all the money needed… where would it be arranged from?” asked Mamata. “The Centre simply has not been giving money (to Bengal). It has been depriving Bengal and lying.”
This outpouring of grievances against the BJP-led Centre is likely to be a leitmotif in her speeches in the run-up to panchayat polls, said Trinamul sources, as the answer to questions on development or welfare initiatives that are delayed or unfinished.
“The BJP’s (Bengal) leaders are going (to the Centre) and saying, ‘Do not give funds for roads, for water, for houses, for 100-day work. (If you do) people will benefit, then how will I seek votes?’ I say you ought to have shame because this is the people’s money (that the Centre is withholding), not yours,” said Mamata.
“It is the people’s money in taxes that Delhi takes from Bengal.... Despite the Centre’s vendetta, I am proud to say we are the only state with numerous social welfare projects...,” she added. “The central government should not forget that Bengal’s share of GST is not their personal fund. It is collected from people of our state.”
Mamata focused on roads, the 100-day work scheme and housing for the poor, as these three are areas in which her emissaries (under the Didir Doot outreach) received the most number of complaints from people.
In both the places, Mamata gave a long list of her government’s “successes” and tried to suggest that whatever her government did, despite the Centre’s alleged economic blockade of Bengal, was substantial and laudable.
“Dissociation of Trinamul and the state government from the blame of what is incomplete or delayed is likely to be an important aspect of our campaign for rural polls. She is not making it up in its entirety, a lot of it is true,” said a Trinamul MP.
