"No Central Discrimination Against Bengal": BJP State Chief

West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar on Sunday asserted that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's "pet phrase" of central discrimination against the eastern state was wrong as facts and figures show the opposite.

Mr Majumdar, while presenting the nine-year "report card" of the BJP government at the Centre, said that from constructing roads to providing water connection to households, the Narendra Modi government has always helped the state.

Sukanta Majumda claimed that even though the faulty land policy of the TMC government prevented land acquisition for highway expansion, the Centre never plugged the fund flow for building new highways in the state.

"Take the example of the slow pace of widening of National Highway 34. While it takes only five hours to reach Lucknow from Delhi, it takes around a whole day to reach Balurghat from Kolkata. Why is it so? There is no central discrimination in this," he said.

Majumdar said he wants the state to be known as a place of job-givers and not job-seekers.

"There is only one fully functional airport in the state. Andal has very few flights and the Centre has sanctioned Rs 1,884 crore for the expansion of Bagdogra airport," he said.

Mr Majumdar said the state government never acknowledged the Centre's help in developing medical colleges in the state, including AIIMS, Kalyani.

He, however, praised the state for cooperating with the Centre in child immunisation.

BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, "Our efforts in presenting our rich ancient history are shown as saffronisation effort in some quarters and this perception should change."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)