KOLKATA: Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee before leaving for Delhi on Monday lashed out at the Centre over the issue of deleting names of 40 lakh people from Assam's national register of citizens, most of whom are Bengali speaking people. She said that she will be sending her team of MPs to Assam next week to survey the situation as many genuine Indians had been declared refugees. Mamata also plans to visit Assam soon to talk to the people herself.

She also criticised the BJP government of Assam for such an irresponsible act and doing this without consulting Bengal government, as Bengali, Hindu and Bengali Muslims were most affected and many will come to Bengal now.

Mamata is likely to meet Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday and for that, she had sought an appointment. She said that many citizens whose names had been deleted even are passport holders and are staying in Assam for past 50 years.

Mamata is heading for Delhi to forge the anti-BJP federal front and there too she will highlight the issue of how genuine citizens are going to be declared as refugees by BJP government. "They had land and jobs in Assam. Where will they go now? I am ready to provide them shelter in Bengal if they want to come on humanitarian grounds, as part of the UN convention for refugees. This is going to affect Bengal, as Bengal has border with Assam, but the Assam government did not consult us. But now refugees will migrate to Bengal, The Assam government has started Bengalee Khedao"," Mamata said.

She will be addressing a convention of Bishops at Constitution Club on Tuesday on -- Love your neighbour. Mamata said that Centre did not plead in the Supreme Court properly on the issue and now by making an amendment those who had been declared refugees can be saved.

"They deleted names of 40 lakh people who belong to Bengal and Bihar . Now they are saying it to be a draft, but during the final NRC how many names they are going to include?" the Bengal CM asked.

She will be meeting jurist Ram Jethmalani also on the issue and chalk out plans on how to provide support to the neo-refugees other than meeting several Opposition leaders during her three days stay in Delhi. Mamata said that the refugees might be pushed back to Bangladesh. If Bangladesh government does not accept them, what will happen to them?

However, Bangladesh envoy SM Ali recently said that the Indian government has not informed anything to them about the NRC issue, so he refused to comment on it, as it was an internal matter of India.

