Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to include West Bengal in the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Rozgar Yojana.
Chowdhury said that the Congress had repeatedly appealed to PM Modi for financial assistance for migrant workers. Based on that request, PM Modi has announced the scheme. “I wrote to the Prime Minister and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Our party has been requesting aid for migrant workers as they don’t have money in their pocket, nor do they have employment opportunities to look forward to. They have come back to their villages thirsty and hungry. The government should provide some aid for them,” he said.
Chowdhury questioned why West Bengal has been excluded from the project and that there is special interest in Bihar with the upcoming elections. “Where will Rs.50,000 crores be utilised over 125 days. 116 districts will be chosen in 6 states of India. There are lakhs of migrant workers who had gone outside to work and have returned hungry by bus, cycle and train. The West Bengal Chief Minister herself said that more than 10 lakh migrant workers have returned, I want to ask, when only 25,000 migrant workers will get this facility, why should West Bengal be excluded,” he added.
Meanwhile, the letter Chowdhury has written to Mamata Banerjee reads, “May I propose to you that you should underscore the need of this programme and press to the Central government for the inclusion of Bengal under this programme as immediately as possible else the poor returnee migrant workers are destined to be deprived and that would be great injustice to those nearly poverty stricken migrants.”
Trinamool Congress(TMC) MP and Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee has questioned PM Modi in his tweet. “Shri @narendramodi Ji, why have you blatantly ignored the concerns of 11 Lakh migrant workers from #Bengal who’ve recently returned to their homes. Why has WB been left out of the Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan? Why this apathy towards the people of Bengal?”
Mamata has been vocal about the plight of migrant workers from West Bengal who were stuck in various parts of the country during the nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The West Bengal Chief Minister had written to her counterparts in 18 states asking for food and shelter to be arranged for stranded migrant workers. West Bengal also bore the expenses of the migrant workers travelling back to West Bengal in the Shramik special trains for migrant workers. With the battle for the 2021 Assembly elections heating up, the tacit war between the Centre and State is more than evident.
