In a bid to keep the minority vote bank in good humour ahead of the crucial panchayat elections, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday showered largesse on the Muslims of North 24 Parganas. The highlight of the programme was the inauguration of a separate office building exclusively for the minority department. “The minorities constitute 30 to 31 per cent of the total population in West Bengal but they are not even aware of all the schemes and funds that the state and Central governments provide for their welfare. When our government came to power, we decided to open a separate Minority Bhavan in every district to help them in availing these schemes,” she said, adding that the first Minority Bhavan was being set up in North 24 Parganas.
Ms Banerjee was speaking at a programme organised by the West Bengal Minorities Development and Finance Corporation at the Barasat Stadium.
Union ministers Mukul Roy and Saugata Roy were also present on the occasion. North 24 Parganas was once regarded as an impregnable Left bastion but Ms Banerjee made deep inroads in the district.
In 2009, the Trinamul Congress won all three Lok Sabha seats in the district and in 2011, the party decimated the Left Front winning a landslide. Ms Banerjee is determined to further consolidate her hold in the district by emphatically winning the panchayat polls. She therefore went all out to retain her Muslim constituency.
Claiming that the financial crisis plaguing the state will not be a hurdle for her in granting funds for minority welfare, she said, “In fact, our government has increased the allocation for the minority departments by 73 per cent. The previous government had given scholarships and loans to 52,916 students while our government is giving to double the number i.e. 1,20,846,” she added. She pointed out that her objective was to provide an opportunity to larger number of minority students to pursue higher education and achieve social and economic empowerment.
She did not forget to mention that she had kept all the promises she had made to the minorities before coming to power.
“It was our commitment that we will grant Urdu the second language status in districts where there are over 10 per cent Urdu-speaking population. The bill has already been passed and notification issued for this purpose,” she added.