• BJP and TMC fight over Odisha train accident aid being paid in Rs 2,000 notes

    Politics
    BJP and TMC fight over Odisha train accident aid being paid in Rs 2,000 notes

    The BJP and West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress engaged in a verbal spat after the saffron party claimed...


    Digital Desk: The BJP and West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress engaged in a verbal spat after the saffron party claimed that a West Bengal government minister was offering financial support to the families of Odisha train accident victims in Rs 2,000 currency notes.


    West Bengal BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar on Tuesday shared a video on Twitter apparently showing a family from Bengal's South 24 Parganas area holding cash bundles consisting of Rs 2,000 notes. Majumdar claims that they received the money as compensation after losing a family member in a train accident in Odisha's Balasore.


    "A minister of the state is giving financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to the families of the victims on behalf of the Trinamool Party on the instructions of Mamata Banerjee. I applaud. But in this context, I am also keeping this question, what is the source of the bundle of 2000 rupee notes?" he said in the tweet.


    Majumdar also questioned if handing Rs 2,000 notes to victims' relatives was a good option, given that the process of swapping currency notes was already beginning at banks.


    "At the moment, the supply of Rs 2,000 notes in the market is limited, and the process of exchanging them through banks is underway. So, by handing out 2000 rupee notes to helpless families, are their difficulties not exacerbated? The TMC might use this to "whiten their black money," he added.


    In response, Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh stated that giving someone Rs 2,000 notes was not unlawful because they were still legal cash, and he called Majumdar's tweet "baseless."


    "Is the Rs. 2000 note invalid?" "Today, giving someone a 2000 note is not illegal or black money," Ghosh said.


    West Bengal CM Meets Injured Passengers


    Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee paid a visit to injured passengers of the ill-fated Coromandel Express who are being treated at various hospitals in Cuttack on Tuesday.


    The Bengal Chief Minister said that 103 bodies of passengers from West Bengal who died have been recognized, while 30 are still missing.


    "I have already announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh for the deceased's next of kin and Rs 1 lakh for the critically injured. Around 900 passengers who were on the train and are experiencing mental and physical stress will receive Rs 10,000," she said. 


    Meanwhile, officials claimed that of the 288 people who died, 83 bodies have yet to be recognized.


    On June 2, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, traveling towards Chennai, collided with a halted goods train on the next track, forcing the rear carriages of the Coromandel Express to wander off onto the third track. A few Coromandel coaches collided with the last few coaches of the Bengaluru-Howrah Express, which was traveling by at the same time.


     Source: India Today