KOLKATA: The CPI(M), West Bengal’s erstwhile ruling party which was in power for 34 years, is gearing up for state-wide protests in the New Year over the issue of alleged corruption in Trinamool Congress-led government ranging from irregularities in recruitment in schools to malpractices in the Centre’s housing scheme for the poor. The party, which recorded rise in its vote share in all the elections after last year’s Assembly elections, is aiming to highlight the alleged corruption issue in the next year’s panchayat elections.
The TMC, too, has decided to initiate image makeover drive and significant announcement is likely to be made in the party’s meet on January 2 where chief minister Mamata Banerjee will address a gathering.
“People living in rural Bengal are suffering because of endless corruption by the functionaries of TMC dominated panchayats, panchayat samitis and zilla parishads. Lakhs of eligible applicants were deprived under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojona (PMAY) scheme. We will not miss the opportunity to use the corruption issue as a political tool to challenge the TMC in the rural polls,’’ said CPI(M)’s central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty.
Every day, complaints of removing eligible applicants’ names are surfacing from districts accusing the TMC satraps and their relatives. Fearing an adverse impact in the rural polls, the state government initiated a spot verification drive to identify ineligible applicants but it proved futile in many districts. The members of the teams alleged the ruling party’s functionaries mounted pressure for not removing their names from the list of PMAY beneficiaries.During the verification drive, names of five lakh applicants out of 45 lakh were removed from the list of applicants.
TMC to go for image makeover
The party, which recorded rise in its vote share in all the elections after last year’s Assembly elections, is aiming to highlight the alleged corruption issue in the next year’s panchayat elections. The TMC, too, has decided to initiate image makeover drive and significant announcement is likely to be made in the party’s meet on January 2 where CM Mamata Banerjee will address a gathering.