KOLKATA — Reacting to the development that 50 per cent of the Waqf Estate in the state has been registered in the Centre’s portal by the state Waqf Development Board, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said she will not allow any impact on any religious place.
While indirectly trying to establish that registration was necessary as per the new Waqf (Amendment) Act, a central law, she also claimed that in West Bengal, she would not allow anyone to put their hands on anybody else’s property.
“It was not us but the BJP-ruled Union Government which had promulgated the new Waqf Act. We have passed a motion in the assembly against it. We have also moved the Supreme Court against that Act. The case is on. But, I want to say we will not allow anyone to put their hands on anybody else’s property. I will not allow any impact on any religious place,” the Chief Minister said while addressing an anti-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) rally at Gazole in minority-dominated Malda district.
Speaking on the occasion, she said Union Home Minister Amit Shah initiated the SIR.
The Chief Minister said she will foil all attempts to slap the National Register of Citizens in the state under the guise of the revision exercise
“I want to assure everybody that we will resist all attempts to send people to detention camps. We will resist all attempts to delete the names of genuine voters through SIR. We have never opposed SIR. All I said was that the exercise should be conducted over a reasonable period of time,” the Chief Minister said.
She lambasted the Union government for “holding back” central funds to the state government.
“There is only one tax in the country now, which is GST. The Union Government is collecting from the state and not releasing our dues. We are yet to receive dues to the tune of Rs 1.87 lakh crore from the Union government,” the Chief Minister said.
She also said that if the BJP was too keen to grab power in West Bengal, it should do so “democratically”.
“Grabbing anything by force is nothing short of an emergency,” she said. –IANS
