NITI Aayog Mamata Banerjee jets off to Delhi for NITI Aayog meeting, Abhishek Banerjee joins her
Kolkata/IBNS: Ending all speculations, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday jetted off to the national capital New Delhi to attend the NITI Aayog meeting, which will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Though Banerjee had earlier planned to fly off to Delhi on Thursday, she had cancelled the trip.
The confusion over her visit created after several other Chief Ministers, who run the opposition-ruled states, have already boycotted the meeting, which will be held on Saturday.
On Friday, Banerjee and her nephew, Trinamool Congress national general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee, boarded the plane.
Speaking to the reporters at the Kolkata airport, Banerjee said, "I had decided earlier to attend the meeting... I was asked to send my written statement seven days prior."
She added, "We are not able to accept the kind of bias and discrimination meted out to all opposition-ruled states including West Bengal. The ministers as well as BJP are conspiring to divide Bengal and also India. Adding to that, they are doing economic, geographical, political blockades."
"I am going there for sometime to record my voice for my state. If I am allowed, I will record or else will walk out protesting," the Chief Minister said, being flanked by Abhishek.
Mamata slams Budget 2024
Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday slammed the Modi government's first budget in the third term calling it "directionless" and "visionless".
Banerjee said the budget is filled with "political mission".
"This budget is totally directionless, anti-people, and visionless. This budget has only the political mission. I don't see any light in this budget but darkness," the Chief Minister said.
The Chief Minister, who is the arch-rival of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has slammed the Centre for not giving assistance to her state to tackle natural calamities while the budget has an allocation for Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim for the same purpose.
"They (BJP) come to Darjeeling for votes but forget the people from the district once the elections are over," she said and added, "Floods & natural calamities are an annual ordeal for West Bengal, yet the Centre snubs us from the flood management fund! What's West Bengal's fault? Is it for voting against you?"
FM Sitharaman hits out at Bengal govt
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman engaged in a fierce faceoff with the Trinamool Congress MPs in Parliament after the party led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the budget as "discriminatory" and "biased".
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Sitharaman said, "Yesterday, the TMC questioned the Budget, saying nothing has been given to Bengal.
"Let me highlight the fact that several schemes given by the Prime Minister in the last 10 years have not even been implemented in West Bengal. And you have the audacity to ask me now?"
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