JOIN USMamata Banerjee destroyed West Bengal: PM Modi attacks Opposition over farmers' protest
Ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, charging her with “destroying” the state and “doing politics” by denying 70 lakh of its farmers the benefit of a central scheme.
Banerjee hit back by saying the Modi government has done nothing to help West Bengal.
“The public is closely watching those doing selfish politics. The parties that do not speak on the benefit of farmers in West Bengal are engaged in harassing the citizens of Delhi in the name of farmers and ruining the economy of the country,” Modi said.
He was interacting with leaders of the farming community after releasing the latest instalment Rs 18,000 crore to benefit over nine crore farmers under the PM-Kisan scheme.
“If you listen to a 15-year-old speech of Mamata Ji, you will know how much her ideology has ruined Bengal,” he said.
“I regret that more than 70 lakh farmers and my brothers and sisters from West Bengal have not been able to get this benefit. More than 23 lakh farmers from Bengal have applied online but the state government has stopped the verification process long ago,” he said.
Banerjee has told the Centre that the scheme would be implemented in West Bengal only if the fund was routed through the state government.
“Her action against farmers has hurt me a lot,” Modi said, as he sought to know why the Opposition was silent on this.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah too interacted with farmers and said, “No corporate can snatch away any farmer’s land as long as Narendra Modi is Prime Minister.”
The PM-Kisan scheme was launched last year and initially provided income support to all small and marginal farmers holding cultivable land up to two hectares.
Its ambit was later expanded to cover all farmer families in the country irrespective of the size of their landholdings.