Political slugfest breaks out in Bengal

KOLKATA: A fresh political slugfest has erupted in West Bengal over Trinamool Congress' allegation that the name of Bidhubushan Pramanik, the father of Union Minister of State Nisith Pramanik, was on the list of eligible residents under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme. The scheme is basically meant for those who are below a particular financial status level.

On Sunday, the chairman of the Trinamool Congress- run Cooch Behar municipality, Rabindranath Ghosh alleged that despite owning a palatial mansion in Cooch Behar district, the name of Nisith Pramanik's father appears in the list of recipients eligible for getting houses under the PMAY scheme.

"How is it possible? The BJP leadership and workers should ask this question to Nisith Pramanik," said Ghosh.

Pramanik is the BJP Lok Sabha member from the Cooch Behar Parliamentary constituency. Although Pramanik was not available for his comments on this count, the BJP's Cooch Behar district president, Sukumar Roy came forward to hold the brief on behalf of the Union minister.

According to Roy, this is a conspiracy hatched to malign Pramanik and his party in the backdrop of the recent investigation that revealed that Trinamool Congress leaders owning crores of rupees and multiple houses have got enrolled for beneficiary under the PMAY scheme.

"Many genuine candidates are not getting enrolled under the PMAY scheme since they are either associated with opposition parties or are neutral. The irregularities by the Trinamool Congress leaders are becoming public everyday since the investigation has started in the matter.

"So deliberately the name of Pramanik's father has been included in the list to malign us. This is happening everywhere in West Bengal. Deliberately the names of a couple of our leaders or their relatives are included in the list of recipients," he said. (IANS)

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