West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that leaders of some political parties were using the difficult situation now for political gain. Without naming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Banerjee said that \u201cthis is no time for politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels terrible that some people are saying \u2018oust Mamata Banerjee from Bengal\u2019. Is this the time for politics? I have not said \u2018oust Narendra Modi from the country. There is an appropriate time for everything,\u201d she said at a programme in Kolkata during the day.<\/p>\n
She advised these politicians \u201cto go and work among the people right now\u201d \u2013 to help dig ponds, plant trees\u201d. \u201cYou were hiding in the house for so many months out of fear (from COVID-19). We have worked every day all these months \u2013 in hospitals, on the streets, in markets\u2026\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Banerjee also attacked the Centre yet again, saying lakhs of migrant workers had been dumped in trains without food and water. \u201cMany have reached Bengal in ill health, many have died on the way,\u201d she said. Banerjee said that the Bengal government had spent Rs 200 crore on migrant workers \u2013 for train and bus fare, and paid Rs 1,000 to some families as immediate relief, among other things.<\/p>\n
“Many people are talking a lot about migrant workers, but have not paid anything on them. We have paid for their train fare, bus fare, and we are still coordinating to bring in those who wish to return. Another 1.5 lakh people will be returning,” she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have taken up the situation as a challenge. We are taking them in with love as they are in difficult situations. But when they were outside, they did not get food, treatment. Many have come from Mumbai, Chennai, Gujarat, Indore, Delhi, and many are coming in poor health,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The CM said that coming in of so many people at the same time had increased the number of COVID-19 cases in West Bengal which was under control for some time. \u201cRight now, trains are open, flights have been started. It is not in our control, but we have handled it well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bengal government has spent Rs 200 crore on migrant workers so far, Banerjee said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":279,"featured_media":9681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[378,246,346,371,377],"tmauthors":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-bengal","8":"tag-containment-zones","9":"tag-coronavirus-in-india","10":"tag-coronavirus-in-kolkata","11":"tag-lockdown-in-india","12":"tag-migrant-workers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/279"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9680"},{"taxonomy":"tmauthors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tmauthors?post=9680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}