New Delhi: Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the central agencies such as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) will not help the party get votes in the Lok Sabha elections next year. Issuing a clarion call for all the opposition parties to unite against BJP ahead of the polls next year, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo said, “I urge all opposition parties to unitedly fight the BJP in the 2024 elections. The BJP is using the ED and the CBI to harass opposition leaders, but agencies will not help it get votes.”
CM Banerjee made the remarks while speaking at a government event where she handed over land deeds to those who lost their lands due to river erosion in Samsherganj in Murshidabad district.
Taking potshots at the Centre, Banerjee, as quoted by news agency PTI, said, “Erosion is a central subject. Despite several requests, the Union government has not helped us in any way. Moreover, they did not give us our share of Rs 700 crore for the development of the local people from the Ganga Water Sharing Treaty signed with Bangladesh in 1996. It's more than 20 years.”
It is to be noted that the Ganga Water Sharing was inked between the then Indian prime minister HD Deve Gowda and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina in December 1996 in New Delhi.
"The BJP-led Union government is busy doing politics, committing atrocities, and spreading canards rather than working for the people. Had they used their intelligence in the right direction towards development, we could have fought river erosion well... but they haven't," she said.
The West Bengal Chief Minister further said that despite fund crunch, the state irrigation department has decided to spend Rs 100 crore to address the erosion problem.
"We do not have much funds, but despite that I am today announcing a Rs 100 crore package to address the issue of erosion. Of this, some amount will be used to help those displaced by river erosion," she said.