Amit Shah claims WB govt not allowing migrants' trains to reach state, TMC calls it bundle of lies

Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress hit back and said Shah was failing to perform his duties as a minister at this hour of crisis and asked him to apologiose if he failed to prove the allegations.

Shah termed what he called non-cooperation of West Bengal as "injustice" for Bengali migrants stranded across the country.

"But we are not getting expected support from the West Bengal. The state government of West Bengal is not allowing the trains reaching to West Bengal. This is injustice with West Bengal migrant labourers. This will create further hardship for them," Shah wrote in the letter quoted in media.

The West Bengal government and the Centre have been engaged in a bitter war-of-words for the past couple of weeks over the issue of handling COVID-19 crisis with the exchange of letters between the state's governor Jagdeep Dhankar and the Chief Minister playing out like a media circus.

TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee said Amit Shah is misleading people. 

"A HM failing to discharge his duties during this crisis speaks after weeks of silence, only to mislead people with bundle of lies! Ironically he’s talking about the very ppl who’ve been literally left to fate by his own Govt. Mr @AmitShah , prove your fake allegations or apologise," he tweeted. 

Complete war against poor people: Sujan Chakraborty

Senior CPI-M leader Sujan Chakraborty said both the Centre and the state are engaged in a complete war against poor people of the state.

"The letter shows Amit Shah is not in quarantine (not away from administrative works). Probably, Amit Shah has sent the letter to prove that he was not in quarantine. Firstly, the unplanned and unprepared lockdown has left people to suffer including the martyrs on the railway tracks," CPI-M leader Sujan Chakraborty told IBNS.

"Secondly, no one is ready to take the responsibility of these poor people. While the central government has arranged the trains but charged the ticket prices, the state government on the other hand is not coming clear about it’s plans to bring back the migrant workers. The state government is not even ready to give permission to the running of trains. It is a complete war against the poor people," he said.