India News | Cong Leader Adhir Calls Mamata's Foreign Tour ‘vacation' Misusing State's Funds
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Congress' West Bengal president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday alleged that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's recent trip abroad was nothing but a vacation misusing the taxpayers' money on the pretext of attracting investment to the state.
Kolkata, Sep 27 (PTI) The Congress' West Bengal president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday alleged that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's recent trip abroad was nothing but a vacation misusing the taxpayers' money on the pretext of attracting investment to the state.
He also claimed that during the trip, Banerjee stayed at a hotel where the cost of accommodation was Rs 3 lakh daily.
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Earlier this month, Banerjee went on a 12-day tour of Spain and Dubai to attract investment to the state. She returned to Kolkata on September 23.
"Sometimes you need to go out for a change. We have seen the chief minister staying at a hotel that cost her Rs three lakh per day... Not only the CM and her family members, but several promoters also misused our state's funds to go to Spain in the name of bringing investments and came back after roaming and having fun," Chowdhury told reporters here.
The leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha alleged that huge money was spent on the CM's foreign trip despite Bengal having "no industry, no work, no business, no investments."
Mocking Banerjee's left knee injury which she suffered during the foreign trip, the Congress leader said, “I pray to God for her quick recovery so that she gets fresh chances to start lying again."
After her return, doctors prescribed her 10 days of "complete rest" with "restricted movement". She had injured the same knee in June while alighting from a helicopter that made an emergency landing at Sevoke Airbase due to bad weather.
During Banerjee's trip abroad, an MoU was signed between the state and the Spanish football league La Liga to set up an academy in the state for nurturing young talents. Later in Dubai, the chief minister met officials of multinational conglomerate the Lulu International Group, who expressed interest in investing in fish and meat processing, poultry and dairy sectors.
On West Bengal's dengue situation, Chowdhury called it man-made and blamed the state government for doing nothing concrete to combat the vector-borne disease.
"This is man-made dengue. The state government had all the prior information about the disease. We all know that in August and September, dengue becomes a threat," he said.
Chowdhury also alleged that doctors have been instructed by the state government not to mention dengue as the cause of demise of patients in their death certificates.
"The government is playing with the lives of the common people. Doctors are not free to write that a patient has died of Dengue as that will have a negative impact on the state government's image," he said.
The state health department stated that there were 1,700 dengue cases in West Bengal, unofficial reports claimed that there are currently over 35,000 patients.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)