Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday sparked off another war of words with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee after he accused her government of “destroying” the state and depriving its farmers of benefits from the Centre’s flagship PM-KISAN scheme under which Rs 6,000 per year is given to each farmer.

The comments were made while addressing a virtual event after releasing over Rs 18,000 crore to more than nine crore farmer families under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi’ (PM-KISAN). In a sharp rebuttal, Miss Banerjee accused Mr Modi of trying to mislead the people with half-truth and distorted facts over the non-implementation of the scheme in the state, maintaining that her government has always been ready to cooperate in the interest of farmers. She also iterated that for all its posturing, the Modi government has done nothing to help Bengal.

Slamming Miss Banerjee for not letting lakhs of farmers of the state avail benefits of PM-KISAN scheme in his address at the virtual event, Mr Modi said her politics has destroyed the state.

“Today I regret that more than 70 lakh farmers of West Bengal have not been able to get benefits of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. More than 23 lakh farmers of Bengal have applied online to take advantage of this scheme. But the state government has stopped the verification process for so long,” he said. “Mamata Banerjee’s ideology has destroyed the state and her actions are against the farmers,” he said.

Mr Modi said the entire country is benefiting from the PM-KISAN programme, but only one state, West Bengal, has not implemented this scheme. In her strongly worded reply, Miss Banerjee stated: “While he (Mr Modi) publicly claimed his intention to help farmers of West Bengal and alleges non-cooperation of the state government, the fact is that he is trying to mislead the people with half-truth and distorted facts.”

“Let me set the record straight… We have always been ready to cooperate in the interest of the farmers. I personally have written two letters and have even spoken to the concerned Union minister two days ago but they are refusing to cooperate and are instead indulging in malicious propaganda for political gains,” Miss Banerjee said.

“The fact is that the Modi government has done nothing to help Bengal. They are yet to release even a portion of the Rs 85,000 crores of outstanding dues that includes unpaid GST dues of Rs. 8,000 crores. If he genuinely wants to help the state, he must release at least a part of these funds so that we are in a better position to address our needs,” Miss Banerjee stated.

Mr Modi also attacked the Left parties, which had ruled in Bengal for over three decades before Banerjee and her party TMC came to power in the 2011 Assembly polls.

“The people following one specific ideology ruled Bengal for 30 years, brought the state down and the whole country knows about it. The parties that do not speak on the benefit of farmers are engaged in harassing the citizens of Delhi here in the name of the farmers and are ruining the economy of the country,” he said.

(With PTI inputs)