The WB CM has gone to unveil a statue of Sister Nivedita; opposition says it's a ruse to go check her health
Opposition parties in West Bengal have criticised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over her official visit to the United Kingdom terming it a pretext for health benefits. Mamata has been invited to London to unveil a commemorative blue plaque in the memory of Sister Nivedita on Monday.
Former Trinamool Congress MP Mukul Roy, who recently joined the BJP, state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury and CPI(M) MP Md Salim were among the leaders who attacked Mamata.
The CM is expected to unveil the plaque at Sister Nivedita’s residence in Wimbledon, where she lived before moving to India in 1898. On Wednesday, Mamata is scheduled to visit Scotland to meet prospective investors to attract investment in West Bengal.
Chowdhury told DNA: “It is nothing but her annual tour to restore her health and disposition at the cost of the exchequer. We all respect Sister Nivedita, but the CM should not have concocted such a cock-and-bull story to justify her trip.”
Salim said the people of Bengal can’t be fooled anymore. “Haven’t we seen such trips before? To Rome, London, Singapore and Dubai. What is the result? Is this how a business meet is done? Without any preparation and homework?.”
Lack of infrastructure in the state is one of the main reasons for the government’s failure to attract big-ticket projects, said BJP national secretary and former state president Rahul Sinha. “Just like these trips, the Bengal Global Business Summit and the trip to Mumbai had all failed to bring in even a rupee.”
There should be an environment of setting up business so that people would automatically want to invest in Bengal, he said. “Earlier it was the CPI(M)’s red flags that shut down industries and prevented investment and now it is the extortionist TMC leaders who repel investment and investors,” said Sinha.
Earlier on November 10, Roy had compared Mamata’s foreign visits to the ones taken by former chief minister Jyoti Basu. He said they never materialised in any gain for the state.
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