Amid an ongoing political storm over the renaming of the MGNREGA scheme for rural jobs, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said her government will bring a bill in the state Cabinet to rename the Karmashree scheme after Mahatma Gandhi.
During a business conclave in Kolkata on Thursday, Banerjee said, "The removal of Gandhiji's name fills me with deep shame. A Bill has been introduced that removes the name of Mahatma Gandhi from MGNREGA. Are we now forgetting even the Father of the Nation? We have therefore decided to rename our Karmashree scheme after Mahatma Gandhi. We seek nothing except respect. And if some do not know how to honour Mahatma Gandhi, we will demonstrate what true respect means."
Samik Bhattacharya, West Bengal BJP chief and Rajya Sabha MP, said, "The loot of money from the central funds were done by giving respects to Gandhi ji earlier also during the Trinamool Congress regime. Gandhi was fond of Rama. If anyone has given appropriate respect to Gandhi ji, it is BJP. PM Narendra Modi's efforts brought Gandhi's dream to reality."
Sources inside the state government told NDTV that Banerjee will bring the bill to change the Karmashree scheme's name after Mahatma Gandhi in the upcoming Cabinet meeting at the state secretariat.
'Karmashree' is the West Bengal government's job guarantee scheme, which is a flagship project of Banerjee.
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