Bengal govt deliberately withheld central funds meant for social welfare schemes: Suvendu

Kolkata, Mar 7 (PTI) Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday alleged that the West Bengal government had deliberately withheld central allocations for social welfare projects like Ayushman Bharat and PM Awas Yojana, depriving lakhs of people.

Addressing a 'Poriborton Yatra' rally at Manngalkot in Purba Bardhaman district, the leader of opposition said the names of 19 lakh farmers were not forwarded by the state to the Centre for the social welfare projects to help them financially.

"Of the 54 lakh deserving recipients for PM's social welfare project for farmers, names of 19 lakh were left out as they belonged to tribal, lower caste Hindu and backward caste Hindu communities. This state government is anti-farmer," he alleged.

He said once the BJP government comes to power, every woman will get Rs 3,000 monthly.

In a scathing attack on the Mamata Banerjee government, Adhikari alleged that 7.11 crore people are being supplied substandard, soiled wheat under the Public Distribution System (PDS), despite the Centre spending Rs 10,000 crore to provide high-quality wheat to the poor.

Referring to the state’s Banglar Bari project, he said the allocation of Rs 1.2 lakh per housing unit is inadequate and vowed to hike it substantially if the BJP comes to power.

"We will also implement the Ayushman Bharat scheme, which is accepted across India, and not the Swastha Sathi scheme, which is not accepted in most hospitals," he said.

Adhikari said by introducing Yuva Sathi, the TMC government has stealthily shelved the Yuvashree project conceived earlier and "renamed the project as Yuva Sathi before the votes. They are cheating the 2.15 crore unemployed and failed to give them jobs." Thousands of BJP supporters participated in the Poriborton Yatra, covering a distance of three km in Purba Bardhaman. Party supporters waved flags with BJP symbols as Adhikari and other leaders waved to the crowd from a flower-decked bus. PTI SUS MNB