Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday said that “palatial houses” on Harish Mukherjee Road and Harish Chatterjee Street would be used to shelter the homeless in Calcutta.
Suvendu’s remark was a clear hint at how the new BJP government would deal strictly with those allegedly involved in corruption during the Trinamool regime by introducing a law in the Assembly during the ongoing budget session.
Though the chief minister did not name anyone, Harish Mukherjee Road is home to “Shantiniketan”, Abhishek Banerjee’s palatial residence, which recently became a centre of protests after the BJP came to power, while 30B Harish Chatterjee Street is the official residential address of former chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Apart from these, several houses of Mamata’s kin are incidentally situated on those two stretches.
“In this state, we have taken an oath that not a single extortionist or criminal will remain outside jail. Some people think they can stay in prison for two months and then secure bail through legal battles and come out. On the last day of this session, a bill from my home department will be introduced. We will now confiscate properties. We will auction those properties,” the chief minister said while speaking on the floor of the House as the concluding speaker in the discussion on governor R.N. Ravi’s address.
“The palatial houses in Amtala, on Harish Mukherjee, Harish Chatterjee Road, will be used to shelter the homeless people of Calcutta who spend their nights under flyovers and on the streets,” he added.
All BJP MLAs stood up and applauded after Suvendu made the announcement.
The three locations mentioned by Suvendu are closely associated with Mamata and Abhishek.
Amtala in South 24-Parganas is known for Abhishek’s multi-storey party office, from where he reportedly ran his “Diamond Harbour Model”. A source said that Abhishek monitored the second phase of the election from that office.
Suvendu not only referred to locations associated with the Banerjee family but also alleged that both Mamata and Abhishek had been involved in several serious corruption cases.
He produced a document bearing Mamata’s signature and alleged that ₹324.73 crore had been illegally transferred to Ficci during the Bengal Global Business Summit.
“The former chief minister gave ₹324 crore to Ficci. Do you want to see her signature?” asked Suvendu.
“The former finance minister directly transferred ₹324.73 crore to Ficci, and the former chief minister signed off on it. Can you do this? This is just the tip of the iceberg,”he added.
Suvendu also levelled a major corruption allegation against Abhishek regarding the alleged diversion of government revenue from Birbhum’s stone industry. While he did not mention Abhishek by name, he referred to him as “Yuvraj (crown prince)”, making it clear whom he was targeting.
“Do you know what was done with the stone industry in Birbhum? You were all merely lamp-posts and the real person was the Yuvraj. You (TMC MLAs) did not protest. I had the courage to protest,” said the chief minister.
“From Birbhum’s stone industry, the state used to receive only ₹60 crore in annual revenue. After we took the oath on May 9, we generated ₹83 crore in revenue in just one month. This will reach ₹100 crore. If you calculate ₹83 crore over 12 months, it comes to nearly ₹1,000 crore. Only ₹100 crore went into the West Bengal government’s exchequer, while the remaining money was routed to Dubai through Camac Street,” Suvendu alleged.
During his nearly hour-long speech, Suvendu cited a series of examples of alleged corruption under the TMC regime, ranging from the misuse of government funds to welfare schemes such as Lakshmir Bhandar and minority scholarships, to illustrate how corruption had allegedly taken place during Mamata’s tenure.
“Yeh to pehli jhanki hai, abhi bahut kuchh baaki hai (This is only the first glimpse, much more is yet to come),”he said.
Suvendu also raised another corruption allegation, claiming that a contractor of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department had transferred ₹10 crore to the account of I-PAC, the former poll-strategy agency associated with the Trinamool.
“The former PHE minister (Pulak Roy) is present here. A PHE contractor transferred ₹10 crore from a State Bank account in Kakdwip to the account of I-PAC. Do they think I will spare them? I will not spare them,” said Suvendu before announcing a new commission to investigate corruption allegations and promising stringent action against those found guilty.
He announced the formation of a commission headed by retired Justice Biswajit Basu and ADG K. Jayaraman as the member secretary.
“I want to assure every person in Bengal that every case will be accounted for and justice will be delivered. You will get peace of mind,” said the chief minister, adding that decent politicians such as Ballygunge MLA Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay and Ratua MLA Samar Mukherjee would continue to receive respect.
In the middle of the chief minister’s speech, Trinamool’s Beleghata MLA Kunal Ghosh, with the consent of the chair, urged Suvendu to take action against rebel party MLAs facing corruption or other criminal charges. Suvendu asked the MLA to submit in writing if he had allegations against the rebel Trinamool legislators.