Kolkata: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has assured the Matua community that the voting rights of individuals who have submitted applications for citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act will be preserved.
While speaking to the media in Kolkata, he confirmed that community members who have applied for citizenship will retain their voting rights.
“The people from the Matua community have nothing to worry about. Every refugee who has come to India will be treated as a citizen. This is the BJP’s promise. No one can harm them. Not even Mamata Banerjee,” the Union Home Minister said, affirming that the protection of the refugees will continue along with the drive against infiltrators.
Matuas are people from a socially backward community who came to West Bengal as refugees from neighbouring Bangladesh and settled in various pockets of the state, with their concentration being mainly in Nadia and North 24 Parganas districts.
Since the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal started, Trinamool Congress and CM Mamata Banerjee have been constantly making claims that several Matua voters settled in the state would lose their voting rights.
Now, on Tuesday, the Union Home Minister took the opportunity to assure security and voting rights for the people from the Matua community and all refugees coming to West Bengal because of religious oppression.
Speaking on the occasion, he also launched a scathing attack against the Chief Minister for her decision to disallow the implementation of the Centre’s social welfare schemes like Ayushman Bharat and PM Kisan Yojanas in West Bengal.
“Mamata Banerjee is scared to lose her voter bank. She is scared of the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That fear factor has prompted her to block the implementation of schemes like Ayushman Bharat in the state,” Shah said.
Speaking on the occasion, he also targeted Mamata Banerjee over her recent initiatives in announcing several temples in West Bengal, the cost of which is being borne from the state exchequer.
“This is an attempt to apply ointment on the wounds of people surfacing because of her long-practised appeasement politics. But it is too late. This ointment application exercise will be fruitless,” he said.
He also said that even the infrastructure development projects undertaken by the Union government nationally face hurdles only in West Bengal.
“The Indian government is working on infrastructure development throughout the country. Infrastructure development is being done everywhere. Why are they being stopped only in West Bengal? Why are there no problems in states like Tamil Nadu and Telangana? Why were there no problems in Uttar Pradesh even when Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister? Opposing any Central initiative has become a habit of the Trinamool Congress. No one takes their opposition seriously now,” the Union Home minister said.
(IANS)
