Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today lashed out at the Mamata Banerjee government over the Malda attack, accusing it of not taking action against the perpetrators and "sheltering criminals".
He also called for ousting the TMC dispensation in the coming assembly polls and replacing it with a BJP government for all-round development of the state.
"We want answers from you Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. When you had taken the oath as the Chief Minister, you had sworn to protect the poor civilians. But you are not protecting the poor civilians. You are protecting the criminals, who are looting and burning police stations, creating violence," Gadkari said addressing a rally in Buniadpur in South Dinajpur district.
"Why no action has being taken against those who had burnt a police station? Who are criminals? who are infiltrators?" he demanded and accused the state's TMC government of engaging in "vote bank politics".
"The government is pursuing appeasement politics with an eye on assembly polls," Gadkari alleged.
The Union Minister also said if BJP is voted to power in the state, the party's government would take strong action against the "culprits and infiltrators".
"Don't worry, the Narendra Modi government is with you. And we are not a government which will bow before the criminals. We are a party which will take strong action against criminals," he said.
BJP national general secretary in-charge of West Bengal, Kailash Vijayvargiya urged the Centre to take action against the culprits involved in the January 3 Malda violence. Protesting against alleged statements of a Hindutva activist, angry crowds had burnt Kaliachak police station in Malda district and set several vehicles on fire.
A team of BJP MPs was last week denied permission to visit violence-hit Kaliachak, drawing a sharp attack from the party. A BJP delegation had also met President Pranab Mukherjee on the issue.
"Maritime logistics is an important component of the
Indian economy accounting for 90 per cent of EXIM trade by volume and 72 per cent by value. The cargo volume of 1 billion tonne handled by our ports is likely to more than double to 2.5 billion in the next ten years," Gadkari said.
Providing details of the projects signed during the summit, he said these cover a wide spectrum of activities including modernisation and expansion of ports, development of waterways, improving hinterland connectivity of ports and upgradation of training facilities in the maritime sector.
To give a boost to waterways, Andhra Pradesh government has signed a pact with Inland Waterways Authority of India for developing National Waterways 4 at a cost of about Rs 3,000 crore, he added.
Gujarat Maritime Board has also entered a pact with Shapoorji Pallonji company for developing a new LNG terminal worth Rs 5,411 crore at Chara.
Visakhapatnam Port Trust inked a pact with HPCL to increase the capacity of Visakha refinery to 15 million tonne from 7.5 million tonne at an estimated cost of Rs 18,412 crore.
At the same time, Gadkari stressed that private sector shipyards would also be assisted financially and ministry through Cochin Shipyard has planned allotting a chunk of Rs 75,000 crore orders including Rs 50,000 crore from Defence Ministry to them.
"We will outsource work to private sector shipyards through Cochin Shipyard in order to provide much needed oxygen to them," he said.
Under Sagarmala, investments worth Rs 12 lakh crore have been lined up and the project is bound to bring down the logistics cost to 10 per cent from 18 per cent thereby making Indian goods competitive, he said.
Sagarmala is a port-led economic development project for coastal areas.
Inaugurating the maiden global maritime summit on April 14, the Prime Minister said his government would mobilise Rs 1 trillion investment in ports sector over the next decade and promised to personally handhold investors for a "safe, secure and satisfactory" berthing so as to transform the country's 7,500-km-long coastline to an "engine of growth".
Modi also said the government would work towards more than doubling the port capacity to 3 billion tonnes by 2025.
India has 12 major ports - Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) which handle approximately 61 per cent of the country's total cargo traffic.
Besides, the country has about 200 ports under the control of states.
