Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Cooch Behar on Tuesday. PTI Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Cooch Behar on Tuesday. PTI

CHIEF MINISTER Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday appealed to the people of the state not to join the BJP, saying that the party was “dividing people based on their religion”. This comes on a day when BJP national president Amit Shah began his three-day visit to the state from Naxalbari village in Siliguri.

Speaking at a public meeting in Cooch Behar, Mamata said: “I am a Hindu and I love and respect all religions. We do not believe in BJP’s Hindutva, which divides people based on their religion. I will make an appeal to you not to join BJP. They are not Hindus. They create communal tension in the name of religion. We will not tolerate such communal tensions in the state.”

Her comments came a day after BJP’s national General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya accused her government of pursuing minority appeasement politics and preventing Hindus from celebrating their festivals.

Mamata went on to mock that the Centre was talking about introducing Aadhaar cards for cows. “The central government only creates cards and does no real work. The people will not tolerate this creation of cards for everything,” she said.

The CM also made her stand clear on Teesta water sharing pact with Bangladesh, saying the interest of the people of West Bengal was her priority. “We love Bangladesh. But if we give Teesta water to Bangladesh, then North Bengal will not get water. We have already given an alternative proposal to share water,” she said.

“There is no water in the Teesta. If we share its water, then the people of Siliguri, Jalpaiguri will not get water and the farmers will not be able to carry out agricultural activities… I am saying this because I have seen it,” she added.

But, Mamata said, she had no objection to sharing waters with Bangladesh as such and referred to her proposal of sharing the waters of the Torsa and the Manshai rivers, on which, she said there should be a discussion. The chief minister added two more rivers to the list on Tuesday — Sankosh and Dhansai.

“Water from the Sankosh river causes floods… why don’t you (Centre) do some planning about that? Go take water from it. There are the Torsa, the Manshai and the Dhansai rivers. Take water from them… We do not have any problem,” she said.

Mamata referred to her agreeing to the creation of border enclaves for a peaceful exchange of people, saying nobody had to push her for that and she completed a job that was “not done for the last 70 years”.

“We have created the chitmahals. Nobody had to tell me to do that. The people of that area demanded for the chitmahals and we did what was not done in 70 years. I personally went to the area. We have returned the rights of the people living there. Those from Bangladesh have returned to their country and the Indians have come back to India. We have provided them with everything from food to houses,” she said.

The CM added that earlier, water from the Farakka barrage had been shared with Bangladesh. Criticising the Centre for “not honouring its promise” of providing funds for the barrage, which has dried up, Mamata said: “We had shared water from Farakka… So many villages had gone under water. The Centre had promised funds for Farakka, but they have not been released till date. Now, the barrage has dried up. The Kolkata Port too has dried up. Dredging was not even done once.”

She alleged that Bangladesh was planning to block the passage of water by erecting a dam on Atreyee river. She requested the Bangladesh government to re-think its decision, as it would affect the people of Balurghat in South Dinajpore district of Bengal.

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