Naming islands in Andamans is to gain popularity, alleges Mamata Banerjee
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Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took a dig at the BJP-led Centre and said naming islands in the Andaman & Nicobar is "just to gain popularity." She was speaking hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi named 21 islands in the archipelago after Param Vir Chakra awardees.
The renaming was done on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s 126th birth anniversary, who renamed Andaman and Nicobar as Shaheed and Swaraj Islands in 1943. Neil and Havelock islands in Andamans were once again in 2018 renamed as Shahid Dweep and Swaraj Dweep by the Centre. Ross Island was renamed after Netaji to honour him.
Now, the largest unnamed island is to be named after the first Param Vir Chakra awardee, and the second largest unnamed island will be named after the second Param Vir Chakra awardee, and so on. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands in an archipelago have 527 islands and around 37 of them are inhabited.
"Today, just to gain popularity, some are claiming to have given names Shaheed and Swaraj to islands, but that is not true. Netaji, during his visit to Andaman and Nicobar Islands, had already renamed those," said Banerjee. The TMC chief today criticised the Centre for scrapping the Planning Commission conceptualised by the freedom fighter.
"Netaji had constituted the Planning Commission to outline the future of the country. But today it's our ill luck that we have no planning. The Planning Commission has been scrapped. Can you tell me why? If someone has any idea, I will request him/her to explain the reason to me as I am not that intelligent," said the Bengal CM.
Mamata Banerjee also criticised the Centre for sending teams to her state over various reasons including the inspection of central scheme implementation. She observed that such steps were not taken in the BJP-ruled state of Uttar Pradesh. "They have sent over 50 central teams to West Bengal in the last three months. Central teams come to Bengal even if a cockroach bites someone. I wonder how many such teams have you sent to Uttar Pradesh?"
She added that a little courtesy should be shown to Bengal, as it was "in this land slogans such as 'Jai Hind' and 'Vande Mataram' originated".
