West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walked out of the NITI Aayog meeting on Saturday in anger. After this, she alleged that she was not allowed to speak. Mamata said that as soon as she raised the issue that West Bengal gets less funds from the central government, my mic was switched off. Mamata also said that before her, people were allowed to speak for 10 to 20 minutes.
After leaving the meeting being held at the cultural center of Rashtrapati Bhavan, Mamata Banerjee said, “I have boycotted the meeting. Chandrababu Naidu was given 20 minutes to speak, CMs of Assam, Goa, Chhattisgarh spoke for 10-12 minutes. I was stopped from speaking after just five minutes. This is wrong. From the opposition, only I am representing here, and I am participating in this meeting because I am more interested in strengthening cooperative federalism… Niti Aayog has no financial powers, how will it work? Give it financial power or bring back the Planning Commission. I registered my protest and I came out.’
Mamata Banerjee said, ‘I said bring back the Planning Commission, I said give funds to Bengal and you should not discriminate. I said when you run the central government, you should think about all the states. I was telling about the central fund that it is not being given to West Bengal, then they muted my mic. I said that I am the only one from the opposition who is attending the meeting, you should be happy, instead you are giving more priority to your party and government. This is not only an insult to Bengal, but also an insult to all the regional parties. This is an insult to me as well.’
