Modi is NRI PM, Centre stalling Bengal's development: Trinamool

As the BJP launched a scathing attack on West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee government questioning its claims of development, the ruling Trinamool Congress on Wednesday hit back at the Centre, slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his frequent foreign travels.

Within hours after BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh described Bengal as an "ungovernable state" and was in a "terminal decline", Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee charged the BJP-led Centre of creating financial hurdles to thwart Banerjee government's development agenda.

"Ever since the BJP came to power, it has been wasting taxpayers' money on frequent foreign trips. We have an NRI prime minister who flies around the world while the poor continue to suffer in the country.

"Isn't the huge amount the Centre has been spending on advertisements taxpayers' money? Where is the 'achhe din' the BJP promised during the Lok Sabha polls?" asked Chatterjee.

He also flayed the Modi government for slashing funds for social security schemes including the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF).

"Why is the Centre deducting annually Rs.1 lakh crore from us? Why are they creating financial hurdles for us?

"This is only to stop and stall the development (work) being done by the Mamata Banerjee government," said Chatterjee.

Addressing a media conference in New Delhi, Singh dubbed the Banerjee government as "an extension of the Left's 34-year misrule" and accused it of indulging in false propaganda about the state's economic growth.

"The Trinamool claims Bengal is surging ahead in industrialisation. But the fact is all industries are closing down. Only the bomb-making industry is flourishing," said Singh.

He also blamed the illegal syndicates run by Trinamool cadres for the dismal industrial scenario in Bengal.