india

Updated: Sep 03, 2020 03:17 IST

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee alleged on Monday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is collecting population data using non-government organizations (NGOs) and asked people to be careful about sharing personal information.

“The BJP is asking people to submit their Aadhaar card numbers. It is happening in some places at Jhargram (West Midnapore district). Some NGOs are doing this for the BJP in exchange for money. These are religious fundamentalist organizations. Be careful. Spread the message in every locality,” Banerjee said while addressing a gathering of her party’s students’ wing, the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad, at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata.

“I have seen the leaflet myself. It has BJP’s name on it and it asks people to submit their Aadhaar document at the BJP office. Why should people submit their Aadhaar document to them?” she questioned.

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BJP’s Jhargram district unit president Sukhamay Satpathy said that they have, indeed, released a leaflet asking people to provide Aadhaar numbers.

“However, we sought this to expose corruption in disbursement of allowance for folk artists. We will submit a list of legitimate beneficiaries who are left out. People not eligible for the scheme are receiving money and we want to expose that,” Satpathy said.

Banerjee also reiterated her opposition to the National Population Register (NPR) and justified her government’s stand on not attending the NPR related meeting in New Delhi that all other states attended. She said those who would not be able to fill all the columns in the NPR form would get marked for citizenship screening.

“Had we attended the meeting, we would have become a party to the decisions taken,” she said.

Banerjee also criticized the Centre for its privatization drive. “They are selling out everything. Air India, BSNL, railways and ordnance factory, everything is being sold out,” she said.

She announced that her party’s trade union wing will organize a two-day demonstration at Esplanade in Kolkata from Tuesday.