Passage of farm bills has sparked a fresh row between Bengal governor and Mamata Banerjee. (File)
The passage of the farm bills in parliament has sparked a fresh row between West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Mr Dhankhar on Tuesday had accused the Mamata Banerjee government of making room for corruption in the disbursement of Central funds after which the state made public two letters to the Centre from the Chief Minister.
The letters, dated September 9, said Bengal would implement PM Kisan Samman Nidhi and Ayushman Bharat if the Centre sent the funds for disbursement to the state government.
"The cat is out of the bag," Mr Dhankhar said at a press meet called at a short notice in Raj Bhavan, stating that the Centre transferred money from the schemes directly to the beneficiary's bank account to prevent middlemen from taking cuts.
Claiming there was widespread corruption in Amphan relief funds disbursement, the governor suggested that it may be repeated if PM Kisan and Ayushman funds were routed through the state.
This latest showdown was sparked by Mr Dhankhar who wrote to Ms Banerjee on Monday, alleging she was doing injustice to Bengal's farmers by denying them the benefits of the PM Kisan scheme.
"Urge you not to shed "crocodile tears for farmers"," he tweeted on Tuesday while putting the letter in the public domain.
On Monday, Ms Banerjee had condemned the "forcible" passage of the farm bills and said the BJP government was a "chi chi" government.
"Shame shame BJP govt," she had said.
In an apparent response to Mr Dhankhar's "crocodile tears" tweet, the Bengal government has made public Ms Banerjee's letters to the Union Health and Agriculture Ministers, agreeing to implement the central schemes if funds were sent not to beneficiaries but to the state.