Shah: Will implement CAA when Covid ends
KOLKATA: The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will be enforced as soon as the Covid-19 pandemic gets over, Union home minister Amit Shah said in West Bengal on Thursday, accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress in the state of spreading rumours about the central law.
Although the controversial law was passed in 2019, the rules on how it is to be implemented have not been framed yet, and the government has said this will happen once the pandemic ends.
Shah also said that the prices of petrol and diesel were higher in West Bengal as compared to states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) because chief minister Mamata Banerjee was not reducing local levies on fuel.
“Bengal is the only Indian state where price of petrol is ₹115 per litre. In Bjp-ruled states, the price is ₹105. The Bengal government charges 25% Value Added Tax (VAT) in addition to local state tax,” Shah said at a rally in north Bengal on Thursday during his first visit to the state since the 2021 assembly elections.
The TMC earlier said that it will not reduce VAT until the Centre reduces its taxes on fuel and the state gets its pending GST dues. “It is the Centre that is increasing fuel prices every day. It is looting common people,” Banerjee said in Kolkata on Thursday afternoon.
Shah also said the BJP will not rest till it uproots the TMC’S tyrannical rule from the state, adding that corruption, nepotism and political violence have increased in Bengal.