TMC govt appropriating central schemes: Adhikari

Senior BJP leader SuvenduAdhikari on Sunday accused the Mamata Banerjee dispensation ofappropriating central projects, and said only three to fourpeople in the state government call the shots, with the restfunctioning as rubber stamps.

Maintaining that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasalready said that three crore health workers and 27 crorepeople above the age of 50 years will be administered thevaccine for free across the country, Adhikari claimed thatChief Minister Mamata Banerjee, despite the announcement,wrote to all COVID warriors and stated that her governmentwould not charge anything for the inoculation.

Earlier in the day, Banerjee said that arrangementswere being made to provide COVID-19 vaccines for free to allthe people of the state, and not just the COVID-19 warriors.

She also clarified that frontline workers would be givenpriority over others.

Alleging that the TMC government was changing names ofcentral projects to claim those to be its own, the formerstate minister said, ''The name of Centre's Swachh BharatAbhiyan project has been changed to Nirmal Bangla mission.'' Adhikari, during a public meeting here, also contendedthat natural resources of Purulia, including coal and otherminerals, were being looted by organised gangs, with thestate government doing nothing about it.

The former MLA, during his speech at an adivasi-dominated district, further said that the 'Ol Chiki' languageof Santhalis was given recognition in the eighth schedule ofthe Constitution by former prime minister Atal BihariVajpayee, but the TMC government did not provide any book orteaching facility to promote it.

He also claimed that the TMC has ceased to be apolitical party and functions as a private limited company,with ''three or four persons from south Kolkata running thegovernment with 20 of 30 departments in their hands''.

Asserting that the rural areas of the state have longbeen neglected by the TMC leadership, he said that the ''fightis between the villages and a few privileged persons fromsouth Kolkata''.

He also said that the district-level servicecommissions for recruitment of school teachers have beenreplaced by a centralised system based in Kolkata, therebyreducing job opportunities for youths.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)