BJP leaders took on the Mamata Banerjee state government on Thursday over development in north Bengal, a region where the saffron camp had won most of the seats in the 2021 Assembly elections.
Sukanta Majumdar, the Balurghat MP and a junior minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet accused the state government of allocating inadequate funds for the region and alleged that the state was not even utilising central funds for the region.
Shankar Ghosh, the Siliguri MLA, trained guns at the Trinamool-run Siliguri Municipal Corporation for allegedly hindering him in utilising his MLA fund for infrastructural work in the city.
“Around 18 per cent people of the state live in north Bengal, but the state’s budgetary allocation is around 0.23 per cent for the region. This is abysmally low and clearly shows the state’s apathy. Even the allocation for a flyover in Calcutta is more than the allocation made for these eight districts,” Majumdar told the media in Calcutta
on Thursday.
Referring to the state-run healthcare facilities in north Bengal, the BJP MP alleged lack of facilities in the hospitals and medical colleges.
“Medical colleges have mushroomed, but there are no doctors... in North Bengal Medical College & Hospital, which is the oldest facility, there is no neurosurgeon. That is why, even Trinamool leaders of north Bengal move to Calcutta or other states for treatment,” said Majumdar.
He claimed that for the medical colleges of Cooch Behar and Raiganj, the central government paid a sum of ₹113.40 crore. Another ₹112 crore of the Centre was paid for a trauma centre at the Malda Medical College & Hospital, he added.
“We don’t know what happened to these funds,” Majumdar said, alleging that while the state did not take any initiative to improve the healthcare services in the region, it it did not properly utilise central funds.
He elaborated on central infrastructural projects taken up in the region, especially in and around Siliguri, including an elevated road and the development of the Bagdogra Airport.
In the course of the news meet, Majumdar took a dig at chief minister Mamata Banerjee over her recent objections to the Centre’s decision to depute an interlocutor for a permanent political solution in the hills.
“The Centre has taken this initiative so that a solution can be reached while duly considering the interest of Bengal. But the chief minister is objecting to it as she wants the problem in the hills to persist,” he alleged.
In Siliguri, Shankar Ghosh, the BJP MLA, who is also the BJP’s chief whip in the Assembly, told newspersons that the Trinamool Congress-run Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) was halting projects that were to be taken up with his MLA development fund.
He claimed the SMC was hindering projects like a road and a fence.
“Contractors assigned to these jobs are facing problems in executing the projects. They are being told that projects with the MLA’s fund cannot be taken up. This is being done by the Trinamool-ruled civic body,” Ghosh alleged.
“If the SMC authorities continue with such non-cooperation, we will launch protests in the Assembly during the upcoming winter session,” he said.