Kolkata, Oct 22 (IANS) The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre for not releasing funds to West Bengal which was battered by floods and landslides earlier this month.

Using a social media post, the Trinamool Congress said while other states get fund allocation following natural calamities, Bengal is deprived and left on its own.

“The vindictive Govt. has once again abandoned the people of Bengal in their hour of need. While North Bengal reels from catastrophic floods and landslides that have ravaged lives, homes and livelihoods, the Centre sits silent, refusing even a single rupee of relief to our state. HM AmitShah rushed Rs 1,950.80 crore to Maharashtra and Karnataka to douse their flood crisis, yet left Bengal out in the cold,” the party wrote in a social media post.

The Trinamool Congress claimed that that such a move stems from BJP’s defeat in 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls.

“The Modi-Shah combine is weaponising federal funds as revenge for the humiliation they suffered in Bengal in 2021. While the Centre released Rs 13,603.20 crore from SDRF and Rs 2,189.28 crore from NDRF to other states this year, Bengal remains conspicuously absent from that list. Political spite is being practised in the name of governance,” it said.

It may be noted that West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee had targeted the Centre over step-motherly attitude towards Bengal and slammed the BJP for neglecting Bengal financially despite the state witnessing floods, landslides and other disasters.

Echoing the same sentiment, the Trinamool Congress further said: “This is deliberate financial strangulation, a cruel, calculated attempt to make ordinary citizens pay the price for their democratic choice. To the Bangla-Birodhi Zamindars in Delhi: you can try to starve Bengal into submission, but you will only deepen the resolve of a people who will not be intimidated. The step-motherly treatment you mete out today will be repaid with the same medicine at the ballot box.”

–IANS

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