West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday gave Union Home Minister Amit Shah a challenge, adding that he should prove her wrong or treat her with Dhokla. The comment comes after CM Banerjee countered data on development in West Bengal shared by Shah on December 20.


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“I challenge Home Minister to prove me wrong or treat me with Dhokla,” said CM Banerjee. She also said, "When a Home Minister makes statements, he should cross-check facts. He has shown Bengal in poor light. Where were you 11 years back?"


Slamming Shah for "deliberately trying to project a dismal and gloomy picture" of West Bengal, CM Banerjee contended that the state has fared well on all development indices. Issuing a point-by-point rebuttal to assertions made by Shah against her dispensation, during his visit to Bengal last week, Banerjee cited NCRB data to state that political killings and other crimes have decreased in the last ten years under the TMC rule.


"You never came here even once. As per Central government data, West Bengal is number 1, in poor eradication in India. Rural housing, rural roads, MSME, Skill development, Minority Dev, all number 1 in the country," she added.


Home Guard and other police officials who have completed 15 years can apply to return to home district for work, said Mamata. More than 50,000 applications were submitted, close to 35,000 officials have already placed in their home districts, she added.


For primary and other teachers, same notification we had issued where teachers can apply to return to schools in home districts. More than 5,000 applications were submitted, 3,000 have been places in home districts.


She added that more than one crore jobs have been created in West Bengal. "Some people are killed in personal enmity but BJP portrays it as political murders. According to the latest records of NCRB, a crime against women has dropped. No incident in 7 years in Naxal and LWE areas. KLO, Maoist activities have been zero. Several Maoists surrendered under our government."


For tab distribution among students, we will send 10,000 to schools and madrasa students to their account for class 12. They can buy a smartphone or a tab, she said, adding "since 9 lac tabs are not available".


She also said, "85,000 COVID-19 beds have been created. Earlier we had 13,000 beds before COVID-19 crisis. Maternity deaths and childbirth deaths have reduced considerably. Our health budget has been increased. This year the budget was three times more."


Earlier, rejecting Shah's accusation that West Bengal had fared abysmally on development indices under the present dispensation, the ruling Trinamool Congress said that attempts are being made to create a false narrative about the state. Ruling out the charges levelled by the Union minister, senior TMC leader Saugata Roy mentioned the state's impressive performance in GDP, industrial output, per capita income, construction of rural roads among others.


At a press conference in Bolpur on Sunday, Shah had accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in the state of failing to deliver, claiming that West Bengal lags behind most states in the country on various parameters, except on corruption and extortion. Countering the charge levelled by Shah that TMC workers had misused funds meant for Amphan relief, Roy said, the state was yet to receive Rs 32,310 crore earmarked for the SDRF (State Disaster Relief Force) from the Centre.


Claiming that election strategist Prashant Kishor has so far helped political parties win polls in five states, Roy said, the TMC believes, the figures predicted by the poll consultant in his tweets on Monday that the BJP will not cross the two-digit figure in the West Bengal assembly elections are correct.


Kishor has been roped in by TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee to boost her party's prospects in the state assembly polls likely in April-May next year. "We support his tweets, he is the election strategist of our party," Roy told reporters at the TMC headquarters.


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