West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee demands total autonomy for all central agencies

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that the central agencies should be made ‘independent’ bodies in order to allow them to make an ‘unbiased’ probe.

“The Central agencies should be made independent bodies for unbiased probe. This is my suggestion. The salaries of the agencies can be given by the government, be it state or be it central government. The BJP led central government through agencies is maligning the TMC,” said Mamata.

The Chief Minister also alleged that the BJP is running ‘Tuqhlagi Raj’ in the country and said that the BJP government is ‘worst’ than Adolf Hitler.

“The BJP is bulldozing the federal structure of the country. Due to their (BJP) political vendetta, they use their agencies,” alleged Mamata.

Mamata also claimed that the BJP led Central government’s latest price cut on fuel and subsidy on cooking gas prices under the Ujjwala scheme as an election stunt.

“Their (BJP) subsidy is a stunt ahead of elections. Even if they give subsidies, how can people below poverty line afford to buy LPG which costs 800 rupees,” mentioned the Chief Minister.

She said her cabinet had decided to not reduce state VAT on diesel and petrol, while accusing the Centre of earning huge revenue from excise tax.

“Due to the Centre's rebate, the state got 1.80 rupees less on VAT and the state government gives one rupee rebate for which petrol prices in the state got lowered by 2.80 rupees. After Centre’s rebate 1.03 rupees got less in diesel VAT and with states rebate diesel price in the state went down by 2.03 rupees,” further mentioned the Chief Minister.

Published on: Monday, May 23, 2022, 08:29 PM IST