# Bengal

Minister sounds warning on NRC

“In Bengal, it won’t be so easy for BJP though 17 lakh people, including five lakh Muslims, have been sent to the detention camp so far,” said the minister.

Statesman News Service | Behrampore | September 18, 2019 4:17 pm

The minister of state for mass education and library services, Mr Siddiqullah Chowdhury, warned of a backlash if the BJP-led Central government goes ahead with its plan to implement the NRC (National Register of Citizens) in Bengal. Any move to implement the contentious NRC would be met with resistance in Bengal, Mr. Chowdhury said on Tuesday.

“In Bengal, it won’t be so easy for BJP though 17 lakh people, including five lakh Muslims, have been sent to the detention camp so far,” said the minister. Mr. Chowdhury, also an MLA of Trinamul Congress from Mangalkote constituency in Burdwan, made it clear that the TMCled state government is ready to play hardball with the BJP if NRC is brought to Bengal.

“Our leader, Mamata Banerjee has declared that she will fight till her last breath to resist bona-fide residents’ harassment in the name of NRC,” the minister said. Today he attended a programme at Maharani Nilimaprabha Institute for the Deaf and Dumb at Behrampore. The minister also visited a new building of the school that would serve as girls’ hostel. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee would inaugurate the hostel building, said officials here.

Though the state government has released funds liberally for the improvement of the school’s infrastructure, about 16 posts for teaching and non-teaching staff’ position are lying vacant for years, said a faculty member of the school. Set up in 1934, the institute for the deaf and dumb is the second oldest such school in Bengal, sources said.

The school was named after Queen Nilimaprabha, mother of Maharaja Manindra Chandra Nandy of the Cossimbazar royal family. The Nandy family donated 10 bigha land for the institute that currently runs classes from standard I to IV with a strength of 119.