West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday took potshots at the BJP, saying that central agencies such as CBI and ED will not help the saffron party get votes in next year’s general elections.
The Trinamool Congress supremo called upon all opposition parties in the country to unite and fight the BJP together in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“I urge all opposition parties to unitedly fight the BJP in the 2024 elections. The BJP is using the ED and the CBI to harass opposition leaders, but agencies will not help it get votes,” Banerjee said while speaking at a government programme where she handed over land deeds to those who have lost their lands to river erosion at Samsherganj in Murshidabad district.
She alleged that despite several requests to the BJP-led Union government, the state administration has not received any help in arresting Ganga erosion, which is a major issue in Murshidabad and Malda districts.
Banerjee claimed that the state did not get its share of Rs 700 crore for the development of the local people from India’s water sharing treaty with Bangladesh.
“Erosion is a central subject. Despite several requests, the Union government has not helped us in any way. Moreover, they did not give us our share of Rs 700 crore for the development of the local people from the Ganga Water Sharing Treaty signed with Bangladesh in 1996. It’s more than 20 years,” she said.
“The BJP-led Union government is busy doing politics, committing atrocities, and spreading canards rather than working for the people. Had they used their intelligence in the right direction towards development, we could have fought river erosion well… but they haven’t,” she said.
A bilateral treaty was signed between the then Indian prime minister H D Deve Gowda and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina in December 1996 in New Delhi.
It ratified a 30-year water-sharing arrangement and recognised Bangladesh’s rights as a lower-level riparian.
“Ganga erosion is a big problem. I have also talked to Niti Aayog about this,” she said, urging locals to build houses at least 4-5 km from the river.
Banerjee announced that the state irrigation department would spend Rs 100 crore to address the erosion issue.
“We do not have much funds, but despite that I am today announcing a Rs 100 crore package to address the issue of erosion. Of this, some amount will be used to help those displaced by river erosion,” she said.
Before attending the programme, the West Bengal CM went to some places in Samsherganj to witness riverbank erosion.
Incidentally, Banerjee had raised the erosion issue during the National Ganga Council meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi held in Kolkata last year.
She had on Thursday directed Chief Secretary H K Dwivedi to appeal to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank for some funds on humanitarian grounds to address the erosion issue.
