Month: April 2013

Protesting the assault on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee outside the Planning Commission earlier this month, Trinamool Congress MPs on Monday staged a dharna in front of Parliament.

Targeting the CPM for the incident, party MPs shouted slogans demanding the arrest of `CPM goons` and said they would not allow Parliament to function till they are arrested.

`The session will not run till the CPM goons are arrested,` said the members comprising Sudip Bandopadhyay, Sougata Roy, Derek O Brien, Kalyan Banerjee, Sisir Adhikari, Dinesh Trivedi  and other members.

The MPs also raised slogans against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, criticizing him for the `inaction of the government` in the matter.

Later on, party MPs trooped into the well of the Lok Sabha raising slogans on heckling of the Chief Minister by SFI activists in Delhi.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra were assaulted on April 9 by CPM and its students` wing activists with protesters manhandling them outside the Planning Commission.

A group of about 150 protesters from CPM and SFI attacked the Chief Minister and other ministers including Amit Mitra when they arrived at the Planing Commission complex that day for annual state plan discussion.

West Bengal Govt. has set up a high-powered commission headed by a former Calcutta High Court judge and a special investigation team to unravel the chit fund mess in wake of the Saradha Group going bust, affecting lakhs of depositors and agents.

`The commission will be headed by retired Justice Shaymal Sen. It will look into how much money has been laundered, who all were the depositors, how much money is involved, and how can we return the money,` Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced after a high-level meeting at the state secretariat Writers` Buildings.

Being set up under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, the panel will have four other members, one of them a retired Indian Police Service officer. The other members would be from the corporate world, public life, besides an economist.

The commission can take the help of the criminal investigation department (CID) of the state police, besides other agencies.

The Chief Minister also announced the formation of a special investigation team (SIT) led by the director general of state police to look into the scandal. She said her government was ready with a new “strong law” to bring to justice “those duping the people”.

`As assembly is not in session now, we would promulgate an ordinance,` the Chief Minister said.

She said her government had written to the centre three months back to return an old legislation sent by the erstwhile Left Front government for presidential assent on the issue.

`Laws that the Left Front government had proposed, had some flaws in it and the chit fund business mushroomed during the Left regime,` she said.

`The old law is faulty. Then President Ms Pratibha Patil had written to the Left Front  government in 2006 to withdraw the legislation and send a fresh one with some changes. But the LF government did not withdraw it though they sent a new law,` she said. 

`Unless the old legislation is returned, we cannot enact a fresh law. We are ready with the draft. We request the central government to return it first, if possible within 24 hours so that we can tackle the situation,` the Chief Minister said.

`If the bill forwarded by the Left Front government to the Centre in 2009, is returned within 24 hours, then our government will immediately promulgate the ordinance to that effect,` the Chief Minister said.

`Common people who have invested their savings have been cheated and we will have to see how the money can be returned,` she said.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee informed the success story of the state in creating mandays on her Facebook page. The text runs as follows –

It is a matter of satisfaction to share with you about the performance of our State in MGNREGA (100 days` rural employment generation scheme) during 2012-13.

Incidentally, Centre was forced to submit to the the State government`s demand to revise the daily wages under the MGNREGA for West Bengal from Rs 136 per day to Rs 151 per day. The revised rates effective from April 1, The State had written to the Centre at least nine times after the April 2012 revision to bring the NREGA rates at par with the minimum agricultural wages fixed by the state labour department at Rs 167 per day.

Trinamool Chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee lashed out at the Central Govt.s decision to deprive Bengal yet again. In her recent Facebook post she wrote:

Is it not undemocratic and unethical to provide fund to those states which suit Centre’s politics? We always ‘hold our head high’ and ‘mind without fear’. But you all see to yourselves, how injustice and political discrimination is depriving Bengal from its legitimate demands.

Protester from all over the state took to street as a mark of protest against the assault on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Finance Minister Amit Mitra outside the Planning Commission office by Left activists.

In Kolkata a Dharna started from late night yesterday at the base of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Dharmatalla.

Several protest meetings were carried out in different parts of the city led by senior Trinamool leaders like Shovandeb Chattopaddhaya and others.

Trinamool YUVA National President Abhishek Bannerjee led a protest march from 8B Bus Stand, Jadavpur to Hazra More. The rally was flagged off by party Secretary General Partha Chatterjee and joined by Trinamool State President Subrata Bakshi and MP Derek O`Brien. The unique rally was a silent march with the protestors covering their mouth with black handkerchiefs.

The Planning Commission today approved West Bengal's annual Plan of Rs 30,314 for the current fiscal, which is 17 per cent higher than the outlay for 2012-13, meeting the state's expectations.

During the meeting, the Commission said West Bengal has the image of strong industrial centre and it was keen to extend support in improving business regulatory environment, encourage cluster approach in facilitating better use of technology and for skill up gradation.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday said that she will meet the Prime Minister and Finance minister during her tour to New Delhi and urge them to lift the ` economic blockade` against West Bengal. Bengal Chief Minister will be in New Delhi from Monday to attend Planning Commission meeting.
Before leaving Writers' Buildings, Chief Minister told that `I shall meet the Prime Minister tomorrow after the Planning Commission meeting and the Union finance minister P.Chidambaram on Wednesday at 3 p.m. and urge them not to deprive our state economically.`
`We are not beggars. Neither have we wanted any special favour or special package from the Centre. Kerala and Punjab are two Congress-ruled states and both are facing with acute loan burden. But the Centre is providing them with some financial relief, while depriving us because we are no longer in the UPA government. I don`t want any special advantage from the Centre, but I must tell them that the Centre will have to give us our financial dues. This year our government had managed to earn an additional Rs 12,000 crore. But the Centre had collected Rs 4,000 crore from our additional income. The Centre collects revenues worth Rs 40,000 crore from our state, but return us just Rs 18,000 crore. I am going to Delhi not for any political reason, but for holding talks with the Centre to realize our legitimate financial demands,`  Chief Minister told today.
She also said that the Centre had stopped financial assistance to her government for providing rice and wheat at Rs 2 per kilogram to the poor people in Jangalmahal. `I will ask the Centre why they have stopped grants to our government for providing rice at a cheaper rate,` the Chief Minister said.