Mamata Banerjee on Friday jeered at the Centre’s reduction of excise duty on petrol and diesel by ₹10 per litre each, and said Bengal couldn't be expected to spare LPG for "10 lakh personnel" who would reach the state from outside for election duty.
“It is like going shopping in a saree store,” the chief minister quipped.
"Their prices were already inflated. It’s like increasing the price by ₹1,000 and offering a ₹400 discount on a saree. How much is the excise duty in reality, and how much will reducing it actually impact the price? I want people to understand so they do not face inconvenience," Mamata said at the Calcutta airport while she was talking to journalists.
The Trinamool Congress chairperson's sarcasm came against the backdrop of Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s claim that the Centre chose to "protect the countrymen" over oil company profits.
But Mamata expressed fears that the gas produced in Bengal's Haldia could be diverted outside under the cover of election-season administrative reshuffles.
“There is petrol in the state, also cooking gas. I do not want the gas produced in Haldia to be sent out by replacing the district magistrates and police officers,” she warned. "With 10 lakh personnel expected to descend on Bengal for election duty, Bengal should not be expected to spare its LPG for their consumption."
“Let the people of Bengal not face gas problems by providing them with gas. Our own people need to cook first," she said.
Mamata said the Election Commission's failure to publish the supplementary voter list despite Supreme Court directions was a calculated strike.
“There cannot be a greater murder of democracy than this. It is truly unfortunate,” she declared.
"Nobody has the right to snatch away people’s democratic rights. What is happening now has surpassed even the atrocious rule of Hitler.... What they are doing is shameful. The people of Bengal will respond to this," added the chief minister.
Citing booth-level data to highlight the alleged BJP strategy, she said nearly 50 per cent of names under adjudication had vanished.
"They were omitted after checking. In one booth in Suti, 400 names were omitted out of 500 voters. In Basirhat, 400 out of 600 were omitted. Who did all this? One day or another, people will demand an apology," she said. "Will they keep running their washing machine in the name of Vanish (Gyanesh) Kumar? Democracy is vanishing. People’s rights are vanishing."
As she headed toward the tarmac for her Andal-bound flight, Mamata briefly touched upon her harrowing mid-air scare from Thursday, when a storm kept her plane circling above Dum Dum for 80 minutes.
“The pilot was very good. He tried everything he could... he saved our lives,” she said.
Abhishek warning
Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said the Assembly polls were a final stand against the Centre’s economic policies and social engineering.
