Minutes after Union Home Minister Amit Shah ended his speech in Memari, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee struck back from her election rally in Harischandrapur in Malda Uttar Lok Sabha constituency, and accused BJP leaders of only “badmouthing and threatening Bengal”.
Banerjee accused Amit Shah of “peddling lies” on the State Government’s submission of utilisation certificates for Central projects and urged the BJP leadership to hold the mirror to themselves.
She alleged that as per CAG reports, 32 Central Government departments had not submitted utilisation certificates for the Rs 52,000 crores spent by them.
“Amit Shah has claimed at a meeting in Memari that we have not sent utilisation certificates for Rs 2.2 crore spent by our Government. I challenge him to prove it. This is nothing but falsehood. Since coming to power 13 years ago, we have given every single break-up of expenses in utilisation certificates. I cannot take responsibility for whatever had happened during the reign of CPI(M) before 2011,” she said.
Banerjee said though BJP in a “vindictive manner” withheld the money for 100 days’ work for Bengal, “we cannot let our people suffer. We have mobilised money so that 59 lakh people have already got money under 50 days’ work”.
“The Centre has two weapons – spreading lies and stopping Central funds due to us. We will never bow before the Centre. They had stopped Awas Yojana money, but we have managed to provide housing funds for 11 lakh houses,” she said.
Banerjee accused BJP leaders of only “badmouthing and threatening Bengal.” “A BJP Minister has recently said they will never allow me to stop NRC in Bengal. I take up the challenge. We will not allow NRC in Bengal. We will not allow Uniform Civil Code in Bengal,” she added.