CPI-M political bureau member and Raiganj MP, Mohammad Salim, on Monday slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s “extravagant and big budget party campaign” for the forthcoming panchayat elections in Raiganj in North Dinajpur. Claiming that the move was undemocratic, the MP further accused the CM of using officials of the district administration for her campaigns.
“There is a circuit house at Karnajora, which has been built for holding administrative meetings. However, the administrative meeting on 21 February is set to be held at Rabindra Bhaban, which is in the heart of Raiganj town. Traffic congestion on the road is a regular phenomenon. A huge amount of money has been spent to build barricades to control the crowd.
Numerous trees have been felled to collect wood for the barricade,” Mr Salim said. “Miss Banerjee had held a meeting in Chopra in the district nine months back and she is now coming to Raiganj for the same administrative meeting. She had earlier said that the state is already in huge debt. Then why is she convening administrative meetings a multiple times in the same district?” he added.
Mr Salim further criticised the policies of the government and accused the CM of not allotting compensation to people affected by floods in the district. “I rose to the occasion to provide compensation to the flood victim farmers of the district and the affected families.
The union finance minister then informed me that the state was delaying in sending the report. Adequate funds were given to the state government to compensate the people. We demand the CM disclose how much compensation the state had received from the Centre.
We have information that a majority of the funds received from the Centre is being used by the Trinamul Congress for its panchayat election campaigns,” Mr Salim claimed.