Deccan Chronicle

PC takes dig at TMC, says God bless Goa!

DIDI TO START POLL CAMPAIGN IN GOA TODAY

- RAJIB CHOWDHURI | DC KOLKATA, DEC. 12

Panaji, Dec. 12: A day after the Trinamul Congress (TMC) promised a direct cash transfer scheme for women in Goa if it is voted to power, senior Congress leader P. Chidambara­m took a dig at the Mamata Banerjee-led party, saying “God bless Goa!”

The Trinamul Congress, however, asserted that such a cash transfer was “perfectly doable”.

The Mamata Banerjeele­d party also targeted a senior state Congress leader in connection with an alleged scam and said “moral science comes before maths”.

On Saturday, TMC leader Mahua Moitra said under the scheme titled Griha Laxmi, `5,000 would be transferre­d to a woman of every household per month as guaranteed income support to counter inflation once her party comes to power in the coastal state.

Responding to the announceme­nt, Chidambara­m, who is the Congress’ Goa poll incharge, in a tweet on Sunday said, Here is a math that deserves the Nobel Prize in Economics. A monthly grant of `5000 to a woman in 3.5 lakh households in Goa will cost `175 crore a month. That is `2,100 crore a year.

It is a small sum for the state of Goa that had an outstandin­g debt of `23,473 crore at the end of March 2020. God bless Goa! Or should it be God save Goa?, the former union finance minister said in another tweet.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee flew to Goa on Sunday evening on a three-day visit to kickstart the Trinamul Congress’ campaign for the Assembly Election in the western state. She will address three rallies during her second tour to Goa in last two months.

The TMC informed that on Monday it’s supremo would meet the “prominent editors of media houses” at the Internatio­nal Centre before meeting all Goa TMC leaders at the same venue. Later she will address a public meeting at Benaulim where former Goa CM Churchill Alemao is an MLA of NCP. Speculatio­n is rife that Alemao will join the TMC again in that rally.

He along with his daughter Valanka met the TMC leadership in Kolkata recently.

Alemao earlier joined the TMC in 2014 and got a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha polls from South Goa in the same year but lost. He later joined the NCP.

On Tuesday, Banerjee will address rallies at Panjim and Assanora. Her MP nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has also reached Goa.

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