Mamata Banerjee Says Will Move Court "As Common Citizen" Against Bengal SIR

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday intensified her attack against the BJP and the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and alleged that a conspiracy to implement National Register of Citizens (NRC) was being hatched under the guise of SIR. Demanding accountability from the Centre on this matter, Chief Minister Banerjee warned that she would move court as an individual if necessary.

She claimed that about 140 people have fallen victim to this conspiracy.

"If you snatch people's voting rights then I will not keep quiet. If needed, then I will go to the court and contest them. If permission is granted, then I will fight for the rights of the people, not as a lawyer but as a common citizen. I have all the documents (related to SIR) and evidence. I have kept them safe. They have shown living persons as dead in the voters list," CM Banerjee said while addressing a public meeting in Hooghly's Singur.

On the same issue, CM Banerjee attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. "They come to Singur and say 'I will do this for Bengal,' reading from a teleprompter. For four years, they haven't given money for housing projects in Bengal. They haven't given money for construction of roads."

"Don't take it personally. I ask the Home Minister, what is your wife's title? The women of Bengal get married and go to their in-laws' house. Their surnames get changed. Does that mean they will be put under a scanner? Put me in jail or shoot me. I don't care. If you put me in jail, the mothers and sisters will respond. The farmers will respond," said CM Banerjee.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister said that Singur is her favourite place in West Bengal and asserted that both industries and agriculture would go on simultaneously. "Singur is my favourite place; I have spent a long time on this land. I had promised to return the farmers' land, and I have done so. The soil of Singur brought me victory," she said.

At the same time, CM Banerjee announced that an 'agro-industrial park' would be built on 8 acres of land in Singur, where agriculture and industry would operate together. "Online sellers Amazon and Flipkart are building large warehouses in Singur. A private industrial park will be built on 77 acres of land," she said.

Meanwhile, remembering the kin of the victims in the Anandapur warehouses fire incident, CM Banerjee announced jobs for the family members of the deceased.

"Recently, some of our friends died while working for a private company. I sent Bobby and Aroop there. We are giving Rs 10 lakh each as compensation to the families of the deceased. The Momo company and the decorators' company are giving Rs 5 lakh each. I have instructed the police to provide a job to one member of each family of the deceased. They will be given jobs as civic volunteers," said CM Banerjee.

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