Religious, political intolerance prevails in country: Mamata

In an indirect attack on BJP-RSS, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said that an atmosphere of religious and political intolerance prevailed in the country.
"There is an atmosphere of religious and political intolerance in the country," she said at a public meeting here in West Midnapore district.
"In Bengal, we never discriminate among people. Five years ago, people in Jangalmahal were living in terror. Tides have turned..Smiles have replaced tears," she said.
"Bengal does not allow politics of communalism and riots. It will not be tolerated," Mamata said.
She took pride in the fact that "only Bengal can celebrate both Durga Puja and Muharram harmoniously".

The Chief Minister said it was her pledge to take Bengal to new heights of glory.

"My government is working for development of the state but the Centre takes away our revenues to pay off debts incurred by the previous government," she said.
The TMC supremo, in a word of caution, told her partymen that she did not believe in playing petty politics in matters of governance.
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The Chief Minister said that Jhargram (now a sub-division under West Midnapore district) would soon be made a full-fledged district.
"Jhargram will soon become a new district. We are waiting for judicial clearances. We are redefining tourism in Jhargram. Earlier, people were scared to come to these places," she said.

Simultaneously, Asansol and Kalimpong would also be carved out from Burdwan and Darjeeling districts respectively as full-fledged districts for better administration and implementation of various development programmes.
She said that a "smiling Jangalmahal" was her biggest achievement.
She said the Tribal Development Ministry would soon form a development board for the welfare of people in Jangalmahal, adding that the government had initiated a major irrigation project for the districts of Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore.
The Chief Minister said that she had instructed the forest department to look into the problems faced by locals due to straying elephants from Dalma range in Jharkhand.

On the occasion, Banerjee distributed bicycles under Sabuj Sathi programme among students and laid the foundation stones for some other projects.