KOLKATA: After screaming blue murder on the day the Enforcement Directorate raided Trinamool Congress minister Jyotipriya Mallick’s residence last week, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday sought to build a distance from Mallick, who is an accused in the ration scam. Though she highlighted the initiatives taken during Mallick’s tenure as the food and supplies minister for a decade, Mamata made it clear that her lieutenant would have to fight his legal battle on his own.
“Or aainer lorai okei lorte hobe (He will have to fight his legal battle on his own),” said Mamata at the secretariat. Mallick was the food and supplies minister from 2011 to 2021 before taking charge of the forest department. “During his tenure as minister, one crore fake ration cards, which were issued during CPI(M)’s regime, were disapproved and digitisation of ration card was introduced. Besides, the food and supplies department started procuring paddy directly from farmers. Green revolution literally took place during Mallick’s tenure,” she said.
Mamata’s latest stance is at variance with her position on the day the ED raided Mallick’s. She had then said she would lodge an FIR against the BJP and the probe agency if anything happens to the minister, who has high blood sugar. Significantly, her nephew and second-in-command of the party Abhishek Banerjee, these days speaks about the new TMC where corruption has no room.
Taking a jibe at Mamata lauding direct paddy procurement from farmers, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleged that hundreds of crores of rupees were siphoned off in the process. He requested the ED to look into it. “As my reliable sources within the Department confirm that more than 60 per cent of them are fake,” Adhikari wrote on his X handle.