KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said the security breach at the new Parliament building was "a serious matter."
Rubbishing reports that Lalit Mohan Jha, one of the accused in the Parliament security breach case, has links to the state, she said it was a ploy of the BJP to malign Bengal.
In a major security breach on the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack, two men jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery during Zero Hour on Wednesday, released a yellow-coloured smoke from canisters and raised slogans, before being overpowered by the MPs.
"The Parliament security breach is a serious matter. It was a great lapse. The Union home minister has already admitted that. Let them investigate it," Banerjee told reporters at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport here before leaving for Delhi.
The Bengal CM flew to the national capital, where she will be staying till December 20, with her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, the second-in-command in the TMC who is also a member of INDIA’s 12-member coordination committee.
Lambasting the BJP-led Centre over the issue of colour of government establishments, Mamata alleged, “Now, they are asking us to paint the healthcare centres with saffron colour. They have already painted Metro railway stations with saffron colour. It is unfortunate. During my recent North Bengal visit, I noticed houses in Sukna, near the Army’s base, have been coloured with saffron colour. They are deciding what people will eat and what people will wear. What is this?”
Mamata is scheduled to hold a meeting with her party MPs at Banga Bhavan on Monday, a day before the INDIA bloc’s meeting. “In the letter to the Prime Minister’s office, I mentioned that I would like to take some of my MPs with me in the meeting with the PM on December 20. We will finalise the list and inform accordingly,” she said.
The West Bengal CM made it clear that she will raise these points, other than the key issue—Bengal’s dues from the Centre, in the meeting with the PM.
“The Centre is not paying for the welfare schemes under the heads of housing, rural roads and 100-day jobs under MGNREGA. We have finalised a list of 11 lakh beneficiaries under the housing scheme but no fund has been issued by the Centre. In my earlier meeting with the PM, I raised these issues and this time, I will again make it key points of the meeting,” said Mamata.
She, however, pointed out that the seat sharing between the partners of the INDIA adjustment issue will be disclosed after the meeting of the opposition’s bloc scheduled to be held on December 19.
Mamta also referred to the suspension of party's Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien along with 14 other MPs from the Lok Sabha from participating in the rest of the winter session of Parliament because of protests over the security breach issue.
Meanwhile, CPI(M)’s central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty described the meeting between Mamata and Modi as a part of the setting between the TMC and the BJP. “Had she been Bengal’s well-wisher, government officials would have been asked to accompany her in the meeting with the PM. But she is taking her nephew with her. The meeting is nothing other than the setting between the TMC and the BJP,” he alleged.
(With inputs from PTI)