West Bengal: BJP MP Saumitra Khan demands inquiry into ‘cut money’ row
Khan also accused the Trinamool Congress of demanding bribes to complete a rail connection in the state.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Saumitra Khan on Thursday raised the matter of “cut money”, or bribe charged for government schemes in West Bengal, in the Lok Sabha, PTI reported.
Khan accused Trinamool Congress’ MLAs, ministers, councillors and Banerjee of demanding “cut money” for the Bishnupur-Tarkeshwar rail connection that has been stalled. “I demand an inquiry into how much fund the chief minister and her family has earned from this cut money,” Khan said during the Zero Hour speech.
Khan’s statement came days after the chief minister warned her party leaders. Anyone caught taking a bribe will be arrested, she said while urging party leaders to return any “cut money” they had taken from the people of their area.
On Tuesday, a Trinamool Congress leader had returned Rs 2.27 lakh to villagers in Birbhum district of West Bengal that he had collected as “cut money”. Trilochan Mukherjee, a Trinamool Congress booth president of Chatra village in Suri Block 2, had also returned Rs 1,617 each to 141 villagers and had said: “I promise I won’t do it again.”
Bharatiya Janata Party state president Dilip Ghosh had said this was just the beginning. “In the coming days, senior TMC ministers and leaders will also return cut money taken from the people.”