KOLKATA: Minister of the Interior of the Union who rejects Amit shahthe accusation that West Bengal had fared abysmally on development rates under the present dispensation, Trinamool’s ruling Congress said Tuesday that attempts are being made to create a false narrative about the state.
Dismissing the charges brought by the Union Minister, TMC Senior Leader Saugata roy He mentioned the impressive performance of the state in GDP, industrial production, per capita income, construction of rural roads, among others.
At a press conference in Bolpur on Sunday, Shah had accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in the state of non-compliance, claiming that West Bengal lags behind most of the country’s states on several parameters except in corruption and extortion.
Countering Shah’s accusation that TMC workers had squandered funds earmarked for Amphan relief, Roy said the state had not yet received Rs 32,310 crore earmarked for the SDRF (State Disaster Relief Force) from the Center.
Stating that election strategist Prashant Kishor has so far helped political parties win elections in five states, Roy said, the TMC believes, the figures predicted by the poll consultant in his tweets on Monday that the BJP will not cross the figure double-digit in the West Bengal assembly elections are correct.
Kishor has been bound by Supreme TMC Mamata banerjee to boost his party’s prospects in state assembly polls likely in April-May next year.
“We support his tweets, he is the electoral strategist for our party,” Roy told reporters at TMC headquarters here.
When asked if Kishor was making crucial decisions on TMC affairs, Roy said that he is an adviser and gives his opinions as a consultant, while decisions are made by the party leadership.
“Prashant Kishor had similarly advised Narendra Modi during his campaign in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, “joked the TMC MP.
Speaking about West Bengal’s performance, Roy said that the state’s GDP has increased by 53 percent, from Rs 4.51 lakh crore to Rs 6.9 lakh crore in the last 10 years.
Contrary to Shah’s claim that industrial production in the state has dropped to 3.5 percent, it has risen by 60 percent, the TMC leader said.
Per capita income in West Bengal, which was 51,543 rupees in 2010, increased to 1.09 lakh rupees in 2019, Roy said, noting that it is higher than Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Roy also denied the union minister’s claim that the state’s jute industry is going through bad times.
“Most of the mills are open and the state government has decided to buy 7 crore jute bags and the use of those bags has been made mandatory to store rice,” he said.
The TMC deputy mentioned that the industrial development of the state is 3.1 percent, which he said is five times the national average in 2019-20.
“In the services sector, they pointed out that the state’s growth stood at 5.8 percent, while we say it has increased by 62 percent,” Roy said.
The TMC MP stated that since 2011, the electrical connection has reached 90 lakh households.
“In the last decade, 1.18 billion rural roads have been built,” he said, denying Shah’s claim about the lack of growth in village road infrastructure in the state.
Roy stated that FDI in the state has multiplied by 24 between 2016 and 2018.
Budget spending in the health sector has increased threefold from Rs 3,442 crore in 2010-11 to Rs Rs 11,280 crore now, denying Shah’s claim that the health infrastructure in the state was in poor condition.
The health portfolio is in the hands of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
“West Bengal ranks first in the country in terms of the number of hospital beds with 85,627, while the number of doctors has risen from 4,800 to 15,338, registering an increase of 219 percent,” he said, adding that the number nurses have also increased by 51 percent.
In the education sector, he said 30 new universities have been created during the TMC regime since 2011, bringing the total to 42 such institutions, while 50 new universities have also emerged.
Roy said more than 1.87 lakhs of new classrooms have emerged in the state since 2011.
Regarding the allegation that the people of the state are losing health care benefits under the central government’s Ayushman Bharat project, he said that under the state’s Swasthya Sathi program, 1.4 million families in the state get a health insurance benefit. Rs 5 lakh annually.
On the charge that criminal activities have been institutionalized in West Bengal, the TMC MP said that crime against women has decreased by 21 percent between 2014-2019 in West Bengal.
“NCRB (National Criminal Records Bureau) has declared Kolkata the safest city in the country for two years in a row,” Roy said.
He claimed that the BJP is talking about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Viveknananda with an eye to the upcoming elections in West Bengal.
“The RSS or the Hindu Mahasabha had no role in the nation’s freedom struggle. Even Syamaprasad (Mookerjee) did not go to jail during the freedom movement,” said the TMC deputy.
Netaji-related documents, which are in the National Archives, have not yet been released by the central government despite the prime minister’s demand, he said.
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