Attempts being made to shift Tea Board headquarters to Assam from West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee

Pointing fingers at the Centre, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday claimed that attempts were being made to shift the headquarters of Tea Board from Kolkata to Assam.

"There are attempts to shift the Tea Board headquartersfrom Kolkata to Assam. We will protest this," she told reporters after an administrative meeting at North Dinajpur district in north Bengal. Banerjee said her government has created a separate directorate for the tea gardens of north Bengal. "We have also created a special fund of Rs 100 crore for tea garden workers," she said.

She accused the Centre of "discriminating against the states in financial matters". Banerjee also slammed Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) for releasing water "as per its wishes" and described inundation
of certain areas in the state as "man-made flood". She said DVC should not release water without taking the state into confidence and warned that if this continued, the latter would take steps as per law.

As regards management of national highways, she said their expansion was under the Centre's purview. "We have handed over land to them (the Centre)," she added. The Chief Minister said her government has taken stock of
various projects such as the Bagdogra airport expansion, maintenance of roads and highways etc.