Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday accused the Mamata Banerjee dispensation of appropriating central projects. He said that only three to four people in the state government call the shots, with the rest functioning as rubber stamps.

Giving credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for already stating that three crore health workers and 27 crore people above the age of 50 years will be administered the vaccine for free across the country, Adhikari claimed that Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, despite the centre’s announcement, has written to Covid warriors and stated that her government would be inoculating free of charge.

Earlier in the day, Banerjee had said that arrangements were being made to provide Covid-19 vaccines for free to all the people of Bengal, and not just the COVID-19 warriors.

She also clarified that frontline workers would be given priority over others.

Alleging that the TMC government was changing names of central projects to claim those to be its own, the former state minister said, “The name of Centre’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan project has been changed to Nirmal Bangla mission.”

Adhikari, during a public meeting here, also contended that natural resources of Purulia, including coal and other minerals, were being looted by organised gangs, with the state government doing nothing about it.

During his speech at an adivasi- dominated district, Adhikari further said that the ‘Ol Chiki’ language of Santhalis was given recognition in the eighth schedule of the Constitution by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but the TMC government did not provide any book or teaching facility to promote it.

He also claimed that the TMC has ceased being a political party and functions as a private limited company, with “three or four persons from south Kolkata running the government with 20 of 30 departments in their hands”.

Asserting that the rural areas of the state have long been neglected by the TMC leadership, he said that the “fight is between the villages and a few privileged persons from south Kolkata”.

He also said that the district-level service commissions for recruitment of school teachers have been replaced by a centralised system based in Kolkata, thereby reducing job opportunities for youths.