Adhir Chowdhury writes to West Bengal CM Mamata on alleged poor conditions of minorities

Congress MP and West Bengal party chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday wrote a letter to state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, alleging that the condition of the minorities in the state is poor. He further highlighted the situation in the Murshidabad district, stating that the district with 70% Muslim population continues to be backward due to the negligence of the state government. 

In his letter to Mamata Banerjee, the Congress leader wrote, "I wish to draw your kind attention to the very pathetic and miserable condition of the Muslim minority in West Bengal. At the national level and also at the state level there is a huge Ministry for welfare of minorities. Every year, programmes and policies are framed for the welfare of minorities but their social and economic condition has not improved at all."

"I represent Berhampore parliamentary constituency in Murshidabad district which has more than 70% of Muslim populations. Therefore, I have a very good understanding about their social and economic challenges. Murshidabad is still categorised as aspirational district. It clearly means that development has not taken place in this district. The Government of West Bengal has completely failed in looking after the Welfare of the minorities in the state otherwise a district like Murshidabad would not have been
an aspirational district till date," Adhir Ranjan Choudhury added. 

Mentioning the Aligarh Muslim University located in Murshidabad, he further said, "You may be aware that my constant effort with the Central Government resulted in the opening of another campus of Aligarh Muslim University at Murshidabad. However, due to lack of support from the State Government, the project could not take off well and no development work is going on in this huge campus. As a result, the Muslim minority are deprived of huge job and educational opportunities in this district."

Mamata Banerjee takes dig at BJP over Jahangirpuri Riot

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in her speech at the inaugural session of the sixth Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) in Kolkata, took a dig at the ruling-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the Jahangirpuri demolition drive. While addressing leading industrialists like Gautam Adani, Sanjiv Puri, Sanjiv Goenka and Sajjan Jindal, among others, CM Banerjee said that her Trinamool Congress-led government does not want to 'bulldoze' as they don't believe in dividing the people, but they want to 'unite the people'. 

The WB CM said, "We don’t want to bulldoze. We don’t want to divide the people, we want to unite the people. Unity is our main strength, culturally you will be very sound if you are united. But, if you are divided, it will fall. The united family is a big and successful family."

Image: ANI, PTI