Days after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee warned her party leaders against taking ‘cut money’ from people, she clarified her stance in the Assembly.
“Whatever I had to say, I had said it at an internal meeting of party councillors. What is wrong if I try to discipline my party workers? What is wrong if I ask my party workers to ensure that there is no misuse of government schemes?”Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister, West Bengal
West Bengal police has now urged the protestors to lodge complaints. Meanwhile, the state government too, has reportedly asked district police superintendents to initiate FIRs on all such complaints against civic body members.
WHAT IS CUT MONEY?
Mamata recently lashed out at Trinamool Congress members for taking ‘cut money’ from beneficiaries of government schemes and for being involved in other corrupt practices.
At a recent meeting with TMC councillors, Banerjee had said, “I do not want to keep thieves in my party. If I take action they will join some other party. Some leaders are claiming 25 percent commission for providing housing grants to the poor. This should stop immediately. Return the money if any of you have taken it.”
WHAT’S THE DEVELOPMENT NOW?
Following Mamata’s statement, protest demonstrations rocked various parts of the state on Monday over demand for return of ‘cut money’.
The police has now urged the protestors to lodge complaints against the accused instead of going for violent protests.
"People should follow the proper legal procedure and file police complaints. Let the police investigate the matter. If someone has committed anything wrong, the police will act accordingly," news agency PTI quoted a senior police officer, as saying.
According to a Times of India report, police superintendents have been asked to initiate FIRs on all 'cut money' complaints.
Gyanwant Singh, ADG (law and order) has said the complaints will be lodged under IPC Section 409, which deals with criminal breach of trust by any public servant, the report said.
"There has been no such complaint so far, but police will ask people to lodge complaints if they have found that a public servant is involved in such activity,” Singh said.
WHAT’S THE OPPOSITION SAYING?
The MLAs of Congress and CPI(M) Monday staged a walkout from the West Bengal assembly protesting against the ‘cut money scam’ and demanded an inquiry into the incident.
CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty said, “We want the government to bring out a list of people who have taken cut money. The government should release a white paper on the issue.”
BJP Yuva Morcha state president Debjit Sinha has said the organisation would launch state-wide protest demanding return of "cut money" taken by TMC leaders from Tuesday.
TMC LEADER RETURNS MONEY
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a local leader of the Trinamool Congress in Birbhum district returned around Rs 2.25 lakh to over 100 beneficiaries of government schemes from whom he had taken as commission.
Trilochan Mukhopadhyay, a TMC booth president on the outskirts of district headquarter town Suri, returned the amount to 141 people, from whom he had taken for providing them jobs under the MGNREGA scheme.
"I have apologised to the people and returned the money. I promise I won't do it again," Mukhopadhyay said.
(With inputs from PTI and The Times of India)
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