Mamata slams Centre at meeting with Modi

KOLKATA:West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday hit out at Centre, alleging that the government was trying to gain political mileage at the expense of the state government.

“We are together in this crisis. However, somehow West Bengal has been targeted by the central government to get political mileage,” Banerjee said during an interaction between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and state chief ministers through video conference to discuss the Covid-19 pandemic . She also criticised the Centre for resuming train services and opening airports, wondering what was the point in enforcing a lockdown to contain the disease spread.

“When the Centre has opened almost everything including the opening of land borders, starting trains and opening airports, then what is the point in continuing with further lockdown,” she said. “Besides central government instructions and advisories, central teams have been deputed for supervision and monitoring, which had taken away much of the time of senior officers.”

Banerjee’s comments escalated the verbal duel between her party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.

“The PM held no meeting with the chief ministers before announcing the lockdown. The centre thought they could handle the situation in 15 days and would then alone take the credit of it all. Meetings with chief ministers are being held before announcing the second- and third-phase lockdown because the situation is not in control. Why didn’t they think of and plan for the migrant workers before announcing the lockdown?” said Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and TMC youth wing chief.

In the evening, BJP leaders targeted the state government.

“Centre is not playing politics. Centre had to intervene because the state was failing its people. The state played hide and seek with data and the real Covid-19 scenario, let the lockdown be easily violated, corrupted the public distribution system and wanted to leave the migrant workers at lurch. The government has failed in most critical aspects – health and home affairs – and both portfolios are held by the chief minister,” BJP state unit president Dilip Ghosh said.