Buddha slams CM for ‘wasting money’ on her photographs

CPM leader and former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday slammed Trinamool Congress government for wasting public money for installing huge cutouts of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

"Wherever we go, we see large cutouts of Mamata Banerjee. Why can't she spend that money on development of the state. It's unacceptable. The money for printing such advertisement and billboards come from the state exchequer. During our tenure we did not spend so much money on publicity and advertisement," he said at a public rally in Baruipur.

He also pointed to the creation of the post of parliament secretaries for her party MLAs, who will be paid and given the status of a Minister of State. "The government has recently created the posts of parliament secretaries. At a time when the government is reeling under financial crunch, what's the use in creating such posts and appoint some MLAs of Trinamool who only talk rubbish," he added.

"When we were in power, we managed with the shortages of funds. We didn't make a hue and cry over it and never claimed that we cannot do any work," said Bhattacharjee.

Instead the Trinamool Congress government is only caught up in organising one festival after another and ensuring that Mamata's photographs appear everywhere, he added. "The photographs of the CM are everywhere whether in the newspapers or on the streets. All of this is spend with your money," he told the crowd.

Bhattacharjee also slammed the government's industrial policy saying it would have been better if incidents at Nandigram and Singur could have been avoided during the erstwhile LF regime. "Yes it would have been better if problems in Nandigram and Singur could have been averted," the former chief minister conceded during a Left Front rally here. "But will the state run backwards because of the two incidents? We (erstwhile LF government) didn't allow it ... In other areas of the state we had set up industries and that too without any problem," Bhattacharjee said. PTI inputs

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