New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday said changing the name of MGNREGA will not help and the Centre should take accountability for pending dues to West Bengal.
In an interaction with mediapersons in Delhi, Banerjee accused the BJP of being anti-Bengal. He said the title of 'Mahatma' was given to Gandhi by Rabindranath Tagore and hence, removing Gandhi's name from the rural employment scheme was anti-Bengal.
"They have stopped West Bengal's funds for 4-5 years. Changing the name of the scheme won't help. Where is the accountability? The Union government's SLP (special leave petition) was dismissed by the Supreme Court," Banerjee said.
"Removing the name of Mahatma Gandhi shows how much the BJP government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi values him," the TMC leader said.
Asked about the chaos during an event attended by Argentine football star Lionel Messi, Banerjee said the West Bengal government has taken action.
He also took on West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose, who alleged that there was not only "total mismanagement of the event, but also an attempt to hide the truth".
Asked about Bose's remarks on the state government, he said, "Tell the governor to quit his post and step into the political arena."
"Where was his conscience when there was a stampede in Delhi? Where was his conscience when people were killed in the Balasore train accident, when people died in Kumbh Mela?" Banerjee asked.
"An incident happened. Chief Minister (Mamata Banerjee) apologised to the entire country within an hour on social media platforms. Is there any other chief minister in the country who can apologise? Bengal is the only state where there is accountability," he said.
As the draft list of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was published in West Bengal on Tuesday amid charges of the presence of "illegal immigrants" in the state, Banerjee launched an attack on the Union government and Home Minister Amit Shah.
"What the BJP has deliberately done is spin a fake narrative of 1-1.5 crore Rohingya infiltrators, a claim that has effectively been punctured by the Election Commission," Banerjee said.
"If this claim was true, the Election Commission should place the list in the public domain. If infiltration is the issue, the person who must answer is Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who controls the borders and commands the CRPF," Banerjee said.
Citing the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians, the TMC leader asked how the terrorists infiltrated into Jammu and Kashmir.
"Leave Bengal aside, look at what happened in Pahalgam. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has nothing to do with Kashmir Police. Then how are infiltrators entering there? In Delhi, just days before the Bihar election results were declared on November 11, people died in a blast. Whose responsibility was that?" he asked.
He also slammed the Election Commission over the SIR exercise, and said many Booth-Level Officers (BLO) have lost their lives during the process.
"BLOs are appointed by the Election Commission of India. They were not properly trained, did not know how to use the app, how to register or upload information. In several cases, the 2002 voter list was unavailable and the 2003 list was arbitrarily used as a benchmark. This is a failure of the Election Commission," he said.