Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday accused the Centre of deactivating Aadhaar Cards of the people of the state before the Lok Sabha Election to deny them her government's facilities and pave the way for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Her allegations came days after around 50 people of Jamalpur in Burdwan East found their Aadhaar Cards deactivated. The CM has directed state chief secretary BP Gopalika to open an online portal for registration of complaints of Aadhaar Cards’ deactivation.
The Trinamul Congress supremo claimed at a public event in Suri of Birbhum, “A fresh conspiracy is underway to implement NRC. ‘CAA, CAA’ cries have started again. Election is going to be declared in a month or so. A plan is made to snatch the voting documents of the citizens.”
She elaborated, “All should enroll themselves in the voter list. I also ask those, involved in preparing the voter list, to ensure no name should be dropped out. Those, who are in block levels, need to look into whose Aadhaar Cards are getting deactivated.”
The CM added, “The chief secretary will launch an online portal so that those, who are losing it, can inform us immediately. We will explore the alternative way. If the banks say Aadhaar Cards mandatory then we will make the cards without them. We also have a bank and other organisations. We will ensure that people do not get deprived of their benefits.”
In a veiled warning to leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari and others who earlier switched from the TMC to BJP, Ms Banerjee said, “You have got so many people arrested. Can't I get the traitors arrested also? I'm only taking some time for a good opportunity to come. These traitors were into thefts, corruption.”
She argued, “Now they are calling others thieves. But they forget they are the heads of the thieves. They are like those empty vessels which sound much. They do politics at the mercy of Delhi. They are against Bengali, Dalits, Farmers.”
