Saradha relief fund: Mamata asks people to smoke more

“Please smoke a little more these few days,” said Mamata Banerjee.

West Bengal chief minister stumped everyone when she asked people of her state to smoke more in order to constitute a substantial chunk of Saradha relief funds.

This move by the Trinamool Congress chief has drawn strong criticism across the spectrum of society.

Social networking sites Facebook and Twitter were the platform where most vented their fury claiming why should a common man should pay more for the fault of someone else.

“It was you who opted for that shortcut to satisfy your greed. Why should I pay more for cigarettes?,” said Anamitra Roy, a city based filmmaker.

The virtual rage equally rose on Twitter and one of the tweets by popular actress Swastika Mukherjee blasted Banerjee's idea of raising tax on cigarettes.

“Tyranny & oppression. The new mantra of W.B govt. mayb I'll be put behind bars 2 raise my voice. I smoke & why shud I pay extra tax? ,” the tweet said.

Public Health Foundation of India slammed the chief minister's move by adding that the same government will have to pay more when people will be detected with cancer after four five years down the line.

“You cannot create one problem to solve another. This a complete blow to all the efforts being done by the central government to convince people to quit smoking. So many crores are being spent and she is the chief minister of a state, a post that people look upto and listen to. She should not have done this,” said Monica Arora of Public Health Foundation of India, a research centre in New Delhi.

“This a huge deterrent to our cause and effort,” she added.