Bengal Assembly passes motion against Centre’s

‘discrimination’ Kolkata, Aug 29 (PTI) The West Bengal Assembly todaypassed a motion against Centre’s alleged discriminationtowards the state government even as opposition Congress, BJPand Left Front slammed the move terming it as a ‘hypocrisy’ onpart of the state government. The motion was moved under the rule 185 by stateParliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee. "It is a matter of grave concern that in federalstructure the Centre is not allocating funds for variousdevelopment projects. The Centre is depriving the state offunds that are rights of the state. The attitude of the Centreis thus against the norms of the federal structure and westrongly oppose it," Chatterjee said. He demanded that the central government sanction thefunds that are required for various development projects andtake steps to waive the huge debt burden of the state. State Finance Minister Amit Mitra listed the number ofprojects, where the state is not receiving funds from theCentre. Incidentally, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeewas not present during the discussions on the motion. Opposition Left Front and Congress spoke against themotion and said the government was taking a dual-facedapproach on this discussion. "The state is pursuing a dual-faced attitude towards it.Firstly, Why is Chief Minister herself absent during thediscussion on the motion? The reason is CM doesn’t want tospeak a word against Modi government and it would makenewspaper headlines tomorrow, she wants to be in the goodbooks of Modi and BJP," Mannan told reporters. "Secondly why didn’t they bring such motion in Parliamentin Lok Sabha, because they don’t have the guts to say anythingagainst the BJP in front of Narendra Modi. That is why weopposed it," Mannan added. Senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said that the Leftopposed the move because the state was pursuing the sameattitude towards the opposition-controlled municipalities inthe state. The BJP also opposed the motion by claiming that thepremise that Centre is crushing the federal structure, is farfrom the truth. PTI PNT SUSIKA