Withdraw FRDI Bill, or face protests, says Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, speaking at a public meeting in Nadia district, warned the Centre saying that if the proposed Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill is not withdrawn, there would be a countrywide protest against it.

Referring to the 'bail-in' clause of the bill which had been tabled at the Parliament in August 2017 Mamata said, "They are out to take away money saved by the common people, without even their consent. The Centre should withdraw the bill or else there will be protest against it across the country."

Taking a dig at the 'Govardhan Scheme' she said that she had heard some of the banks were not accepting cash deposits. "They have started Govardhan scheme according to which they would probably accept cow dung or the ash after burning cow dung cakes. So they would accept ash instead of cash," Mamata added.

She also took a dig at Rajya Sabha MP Amit Shah who, during his maiden speech at the Upper House of the Parliament said that it was better to sell 'pakoda' (fritters) than be unemployed. "After notebandi, with the implementation of unplanned GST, the Centre has decimated small businesspersons. Now they are asking people to make and sell 'pakoda'. How will they do it when you have destroyed their capacity to do so?" Mamata said.

Talking about farmer deaths she said, "There had been death of about 12,000 farmers in the country and Maharashtra tops the list among the states. Now the Centre is talking about welfare of farmers. They have announced health schemes for them but have no money to fund those. They want the state to contribute 40 per cent of the scheme. Why should we? They need to learn a thing or two from Bengal. We have been giving people free health services for a long time."

Drawing a comparison between the state's Kanyashree and the Centre's 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' scheme, she said, "The Centre has allotted Rs 100 crore for the entire country whereas we have spent Rs 5,000 crore in Kanyashree."

She told party workers that it should be ensured that all Gram Panchayats in the state should be won by TMC because only then there would be uninterrupted developmental work because if BJP wins any they would halt welfare work because they only indulged in divisive politics. "They don't work. They only want to divide people on the basis of religion," she said.