After CM Mamta Banerjee agrees to implement PM Kisan scheme in Bengal, BJP promises to pay farmers arrears

BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya on Friday said that the saffron party, after voted to power in West Bengal, will ensure that each farmer of the state will get Rs 18,000 in arrears under the PM Kisan scheme. The assertion of Vijayvargiya, the BJP's West Bengal in-charge, came days after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee agreed to implement the central scheme in the state, under which farmers get Rs 6,000 a year in three equal instalments.

The decision of the Trinamool Congress supremo, taken months before the assembly election, is being seen as a move to blunt the BJP's accusation that her party is preventing farmers of the state from getting benefits of the scheme.

"Farmers of Bengal will get their due after the Mamata Banerjee government goes and the BJP government comes to power," Vijayvargiya said, while addressing a party rally at Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district.

They will be paid Rs 18,000 each in arrears, the amount which has already been transferred to the bank accounts of farmers in the rest of the country, he said. The mafia controls coal and sand mining in the state and indulges in cattle smuggling, he alleged, asserting that those involved in such rackets will be driven out of the state by the BJP.

Describing the TMC as a virus, the BJP's West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh who also addressed the rally, said that his own party is its vaccine which will make the ruling party leave the state after May.

The assembly election in the state is due in April-May. Claiming that the BJP already has 1.5 crore members in West Bengal, Ghosh said that nearly 29,000 cases have been filed against BJP workers in the state to intimidate them.

"The previous Left Front and the current TMC dispensation failed to deliver. The BJP will ensure that the state marches ahead in the path of



development," he said. Ghosh alleged that the money meant for relief after cyclone Amphan has been looted and misappropriated by TMC workers and leaders.

"The parivartan (change) people had hoped for after the TMC came to power proved a mirage and now there's the need for another parivartan," he said. Ministers and leaders of the TMC are leaving the party as they are not getting due respect and position, the BJP state president claimed.

"Mamata Banerjee is now accusing us of breaking her party. What had she done to other parties earlier in the state?" he asked, claiming that the TMC had made several MLAs of the Congress and Left parties join the party.

Holding that the anti-land acquisition movement of the TMC at Singur, which led to the shifting of Tata Motors' Nano car plant to Gujarat, was "wrong", BJP national vice president Mukul Roy said that West Bengal did not get any industry since the company was forced to leave.

"If we win the elections, we will urge the prime minister to get the Tatas back in Singur for the sake of rejuvenation of industry in the state," said Roy who was in the TMC during the movement at Singur. He, however, said that Nandigram agitation was a different issue since the Left Front government had forcibly taken away land from poor farmers, and Suvendu Adhikari led that movement of the people.

Adhikari, who recently resigned as the TMC MLA of Nandigram and joined the BJP, alleged that stones were thrown during the meeting to create chaos and disturbance.

"Even the CPI(M) during its rule had not done any such thing when the TMC held meetings," Adhikari said.

He thanked BJP leaders L K Advani, Rajnath Singh and the late Sushma Swaraj for their support to the Nandigram movement in 2007 against the Left Front governments move to acquire farmlands for setting up a special economic zone (SEZ).