Jitendra Tiwari, the outgoing mayor of Asansol in Bengal’s West Burdwan district, has accused the Trinamool Congressional government of not allowing the city to receive funds worth Rs 2000 million from the Center under the Smart City project due to for political reasons.
This has caused great embarrassment to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in a region where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won two adjacent seats to the Lok Sabha in 2019. This sudden development has also fueled speculation that Tiwari, who is also the local legislator, a TMC heavyweight, may leave the party in the run-up to the crucial assembly elections to be held in about five months. The party has summoned Tiwari for an internal meeting on Tuesday night and the latter has confirmed that he will attend.
In his letter to Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakin on Sunday, Tiwali wrote: “… I am very aggrieved to say that our city was chosen by the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, under the Smart City Mission project that If you allow it, you could have received funds worth Rs 2000 million, which would be very important for the development of the city. ”
“… Due to political reasons, the state government did not allow us to profit from it,” Tiwari said in the letter that was marked confidential but leaked to the media Monday morning. HT has seen the letter.
Tiwari also expressed his disgust at the lack of funds for various local projects, such as Prince Dwaraknath Thakur’s Town Hall in Raniganj, the town hall renovation in Jamuria, and various roads in Asansol, Burnpur, Kulti, Jamuria, and Raniganj.
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“Asansol was chosen under this project (Smart City) as a result of the tremendous work effort of the councilors and the entire AMC team (Asansol Municipal Corporation) but for political reasons, we were not allowed to obtain the benefits of this project.” he wrote.
“It was promised that the state government would make funds available for the general development of this city, but it was not done. Similarly, under the solid waste management project, the city of Asansol could have received another 1500 million rupees from the Center … but you and your department have not allowed us to obtain the benefits of these funds from the Central Government. due to which I believe that injustice has been done to the city of Asansol ”, wrote the outgoing mayor.
The Union minister of state, Babul Supriyo, is the deputy of Asansol, while the adjacent seat of Bardhaman-Durgapur is represented by another minister of state of the Union, SS Ahluwalia. The region has a considerable non-Bengali and Muslim population. Asansol is the second largest city in South Bengal after Calcutta. It is located in the largest coal mining and industrial belt in the state.
“Policies are decided by legislators and he (Tiwari) is one of them. You should have discussed the matter with me. Writing this letter was not the right thing to do. If you want to leave the party, you can. But I think it will stay. The BJP is misleading some people, ”said Minister Hakim in Calcutta.
He claimed that Tiwari was not available by phone. “I called Tiwari twice but couldn’t reach him,” he added.
On the choice of Asansol for the Smart City project, MP Babul Supriyo told a local news channel: “I was the Union’s state minister for urban development when I chose Asansol for the Smart City project because it is the second generator highest income after Kolkata. I wrote to Mamata Banerjee. She never responded. ”
He said Tiwari has shown courage in writing the letter. “I wrote many letters to Firhad Hakim on this subject. He also did not respond to any of them. Asansol has suffered severe deprivation. The only job the local civic body has is putting up Mamata Banerjee posters, ”he said.
Tiwari, for her part, was not pleased that her letter was leaked. “I have no idea how the letter was leaked. We have to live in Asansol and we must answer to the people. Hakim doesn’t love Mamata Banerjee more than we do. I fight the BJP in the field every day. You shouldn’t be talking about the TMC doors being open for people to leave. This was a confidential letter. How did it leak? I ask.
A BJP leader, on condition of anonymity, said: “Tiwari has voiced the grievance of ordinary people. If you want to join the BJP, we will welcome you. We also continue to say that Mamata Banerjee has deprived the state of core funds worth billions of rupees. ”
Meanwhile, on Monday, Tiwari also wrote to the higher education department that he would like to resign from the governing body of two local universities.
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