Thaindian News

Kolkata, Aug 21 (IANS) The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Sunday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of misleading the masses by making false promises during her stint as railway minister and felt that she is still pursuing the politics of gimmicks in the state.

“For two years she went on laying one foundation stone after another. Before the (April-May) assembly polls she started claiming repeatedly that she has made provision for jobs for lakhs of unemployed youths in the state by arranging the setting up of 16 railway factories. She lied to the masses, created confusion among them and won the polls to become the chief minister,” said an editorial in CPI-M’s Bengali mouthpiece “Ganashakti”.

“Naturally, now she has no time to look back. But now the people are enquiring about the existence of these 16 factories. Repeatedly it has been said that job opportunities have been created for lakhs of unemployed youths in these factories. If it is true then who are those youths and where are those factories situated,” said the editorial.

The daily said that of the 16 promised factories, only one has come up in Singur - a cold storage. “The construction work of not even one of the 15 other factories has started…And does one need a giant organisation like the railways to build one cold storage?”

The editorial claimed that from the recent replies given by Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi in the Rajya Sabha it has been proved that Banerjee misled the masses in the name of industrialisation.

“The projects that Banerjee announced as railway minister won’t be completed in the next 15-20 years. Right now as chief minister of the state also she is treading the same path of gimmicks and tricks to push the future of Bengal in grave danger,” said the editorial.