Was not allowed to speak at NITI Aayog meeting, this is humiliation: Mamata

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday claimed that she was humiliated as she was not allowed to speak at the NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi.

Banerjee said she has no problems if other states are allocated more funds but would protest discrimination against West Bengal.

"I was not allowed to speak. They were repeatedly ringing the bell. This is humiliation," she said while speaking to reporters at Kolkata airport after arriving from New Delhi.

On Saturday, Banerjee who is also the Trinamool Congress supremo, walked out of the NITI Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On the issues she raised during her brief speech, Banerjee said she referred to the proposal of constituting an Indo-Bhutan River Commission since water from Bhutan often floods regions in the northern part of West Bengal every year.

She said her comments on the issue of Teesta water sharing with Bangladesh had been misinterpreted by certain quarters.

"If we lose water from the Teesta river, people of north Bengal will reel under drinking water crisis,” Banerjee said.

She alleged that she was given very little time at the NITI Aayog meet in contrast to that given to other chief ministers such as Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh.

Claiming that when she was speaking at the meeting, the bell kept ringing, Banerjee said, “Rajnath Singh presided over the meeting. The PM and the Home Minister were also seated. Obviously, they asked him to do this."

“Among the opposition, I was the only one who attended the meeting today because we believe that if cooperative federalism has to be protected, the share of the state's funds taken by the Centre should be given to the state for development," she said.

"Before me, Naidu spoke for 20 minutes. Assam, Arunachal, Chhattisgarh, and Goa CMs spoke for 15-20 minutes. But as soon as I spoke for five minutes, they kept hitting the bell and asked me to stop. I said okay I will stop and added that if they did not want to listen, I will leave. I boycotted and left because they did not want to hear about Bengal's deprivation," she added.

Banerjee said since chief ministers of the INDIA bloc “boycotted” the meet, she thought of going there and speaking for all.

“I spoke whatever I could in five minutes - about Bengal's deprivation and the way all opposition-ruled states were deprived in the budget while states ruled by BJP and its allies got more. We don't have issues if some states are given more funds but it cannot be that one is forsaken for the other. It cannot happen that some people can eat while others are starved,” she said.

When it comes to development, it must be ensured that the work is not politically driven but should be done for the welfare of all, the TMC supremo said.

"During elections, they publicised that three crore houses would be built but it was a lie. The PM has said in his speech that he has ensured four crore houses have come up. It seems they counted the houses made since Independence," the chief minister said.

Banerjee said she told the meeting the Centre uses its photos in projects where work is actually carried out by state governments.

“If states are crippled, the Centre will also be impacted one day. Bengal's Rs 1.71 lakh crore is pending - an amount that will increase further as this year's calculation is yet to be made. Food subsidies, MGNREGA, Awas Yojana, and funds for roads have been withheld," she said.

On the contentious Teesta water sharing issue, Banerjee said the Centre must consult stakeholder states.

Alleging the state was not consulted on the issue, the chief minister said, "They did not ask us about anything. They are conspiring to divide West Bengal.

Union minister and state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar recently proposed the inclusion of northern West Bengal under the Ministry of DoNER to facilitate more development funds for the region.

“If we lose water from the Teesta River, who will feel the crunch? The people of north Bengal. During the monsoons, the river is swollen but dries up during summers causing water scarcity,” Banerjee said.