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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah for peddling lies about her government not submitting utilisation certificates for central projects, asking them to apologise or accept before the public that they had lied.
"Yesterday, PM Modi's big brother Amit Shah said in Memari that the state government has not given utilisation certification for Rs 2.32 lakh. I challenged in the earlier meeting that after our government came into power, no utilisation certificates were pending. Either you have to apologise or say before the public that they had spoken lies," Banerjee said, speaking at a public meeting at Shakti Sangha ground at Malda Uttar Lok Sabha constituency. A utilization certificate (UC) is a document that verifies that a grant or loan has been used for its intended purpose. The Central Government requires grantee organizations or institutions to submit a UC in Form GFR 12-A within 12 months of the financial year's end. The UC should include an output-based performance assessment and details of the grants received, expenditure incurred, and closing balances. Banerjee said that the CAG report mentioned that 32 departments of the Central government are yet to give their utilisation certificates. "Your CAG report mentioned that Rs 52000 crore across 32 departments has not given utilisation certificates. First, look at yourself," Banerjee said. The Chief Minister urged people to vote against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government if they do not want the Citizenship Amendment Act to be implemented, saying that the Centre will not spare anyone when they come to power for the third term. "If you do not want NRC, CAA, Uniform Civil Code, if you want to stay in the country, get citizenship rights, to keep India's culture intact, you have to defeat the BJP. They will not spare anyone including STs, adivasis, minorities, Hindus, Muslims, no one will be spared. They will drive away everyone," Banerjee said. Hitting out at the BJP for allegedly claiming themselves to be the defenders of Hinduism, the Chief Minister said that the BJP was not even formed during the freedom movement. "They (BJP) claim they are the masters of Hinduism. Where were they during the freedom movement? The BJP party was not even formed. Don't we worship Ma Durga, Ma Laxmi...They are teaching us Hinduism," Banerjee said. Claiming that the BJP did not take action on anyone in their party who involved in crimes, the Trinamool Congress supremo said, "BJP has not taken any action against anyone. During the Gujarat riots, they soaked their hands in blood, in Hathras, no one got justice, Bilkis Bano is still roaming in fear." The TMC chief also took on the BJP on soaring gas prices and medicines. "There is a need to remove BJP government at the Centre. Today gas cylinders are worth Rs 1000. In days to come, it will be Rs 2000. Free rice is boiled using gas cylinders worth Rs 1000. This is Modi's guarantee. There are gas cylinders in every house. But gas is sold at exorbitant rates. Even prices for medicines of heart diseases, blood pressure have gone up," Banerjee said. The Chief Minister also hit out at the BJP for celebrating after the Calcutta High Court recently declared all appointments null and void in the selection of candidates in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided secondary and higher secondary schools through a 2016 recruitment process. "They (BJP) promised to give employment to 2 crore unemployed youth. But they are feeding into the jobs that were given by our government. On top of it they are saying that they will light firecrackers," Banerjee said. Malda Uttar will be voting in the third phase of the election on May 7. During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) won 22 seats, while the BJP won 18 seats. Congress emerged victorious in two seats. (ANI)
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