The Left parties and the Congress have demanded that an FIR be filed against the ineligible beneficiaries of cyclone Amphan relief. The development comes a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the State government had rejected 6,000 applications for compensation across the State after carrying out investigations at the grassroots level. She said on Thursday that the State government would now include the names of another 6,000 people who should have got the compensation.
“Out of 40,000 applicants who claimed that they were denied the compensation, 6,000 have been rejected as investigations revealed they were not affected by the cyclone at all,” she said. Irregularities were due to the urgency with which the State government tried to distribute the relief. Ninety per cent of those affected had got the compensation, she said.
Cyclone Amphan, which made a landfall on May 20, battered large parts of south Bengal.
Leader of the Left legislature party in State Assembly and Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA Sujan Chakraborty said the Trinamool Congress had not arrested a single leader for the irregularities.
“Why has an FIR not been registered against those who siphoned off the money? Isn’t there a rule of law in the State ? After all, this is the State government’s money,” Mr. Chakraborty said.
Left Front chairperson and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Biman Bose demanded that the entire list of beneficiaries be made public.
Leader of the Opposition and Congress MLA Abdul Mannan said the Trinamool Congress leadership was merely issuing show cause notices against its party leaders. The administration should register an FIR, he said. Claims made by the Chief Minister that 90% of those affected had received the compensation were completely false.
“I dare the Chief Minister to visit any village affected by the cyclone. If even 50% of the people say they have received compensation, we will withdraw from our protests,” the Congress leader said.
