This Article is From Jul 10, 2014

Mamata Banerjee Defends Trinamool Congress' Protest in Parliament

Mamata Banerjee Defends Trinamool Congress' Protest in Parliament

File Photo of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

Burdwan, West Bengal: Defending the agitation by Trinamool Congress MPs in Parliament over the Railway budget, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that they were only exercising their democratic rights to protest against 'deprivation' of Bengal.

"I was an MP for 23 years. I will not make any comment on what the Speaker said inside the House. But it was a democratic right to voice protest in a democratic manner.

Bengal has been deprived. Trinamool Congress will give reply to such deprivation and insult to Bengal," Ms Banerjee said.

Addressing the media after attending an administrative meeting, she said, "We want that those who are elected from Bengal will speak for the people, not just once but a thousand times against those who would deprive it," she said.

Addressing a public meeting at a later time, she said that while she was the Railway minister, she had showered Bengal with projects as well as for other states.

"I have given 13 (new) trains to a small state Kerala. We are not beggers. Rights are not bestowed automatically, they have to be snatched," Ms Banerjee said.

She also slammed the Central government for the rise of prices of petrol and diesel, saying "prices of petrol and diesel were being increased on a regular basis. Prices of kerosene and fertilizers were also rising. What people will eat?"

Trinamool Congress workers staged protests on the issue at Bhowanipore in south Kolkata, the assembly constituency represented by the Chief Minister, and also outside the Eastern Railway Headquarters at Fairlie Place where they burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Ugly scenes were witnessed in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday when BJP and Trinamool Congress members came almost to blows over the Railway Budget whose withdrawal was demanded by members from West Bengal.

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