'Inaugurated It Already During 2nd Wave': Mamata Banerjee At PM Modi's Kolkata Hospital Launch

Mamata Banerjee said she had already launched the second campus of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute during the second Covid-19 wave when Bengal desperately needed more such centres.

New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee caused a flutter on Friday after she said that she had already inaugurated the second campus of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to launch.

Mamata Banerjee made the remarks after PM Modi inaugurated the campus in Kolkata at a virtual event.

When it was her turn to speak on the ocassion, Mamata Banerjee said she had already launched the complex during the second Covid-19 wave when Bengal desperately needed more such centres to cater to the surge of patients.

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"The Prime Minister is virtually inaugurating this project. But let me inform the PM that we inaugurated it way before," NDTV quoted Mamata Banerjee as saying.

"How did we do it? When Covid started and we needed a Covid centre, I went there one day. The Rajarhat second campus of Chittaranjan Hospital. I saw it was linked to the state government and we inaugurated it," the TMC supremo, a fierce critic of PM Modi, said at the event,

Banerjee further said that she attended the event after being invited twice by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandavia. She stressed that the Bengal government was following all guidelines issued by the Centre despite "questions raised by the governor" over its decisions, PTI reported.

Mamata Banerjee also said that the state government spent 25 per cent of the cost incurred on setting up the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, and would also bear the recurring expenditure of Rs 71 crore. The Bengal government, she said, had provided 11 acres of land for the institute, PTI reported.

However, Mamata Banerjee thanked the PM for inaugurating the campus and dedicating it to the people of India.

She also appealed to the PM to give the state more Covid-19 vaccines.

"We constructed 43 new multi-super specialty hospitals, 16 mother and child centres. We have administered vaccine doses with record zero wastage, but we need more vaccines as 40 per cent population still remains unvaccinated," the Bengal CM said.

Addressing the event, PM Modi underlined his government's commitment on providing benefits of high-quality healthcare services to the poor and the middle class.