West Bengal not to take part in NPR meeting on January 17: Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said her state will not take part in the meeting convened by the Centre on National Population Register (NPR) in New Delhi on January 17.

She also dared Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to “dismiss” the state government for not toeing the line of the Centre.

Banerjee, who has been at the forefront of protests against the NPR, the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens, said the West Bengal government had already stayed the process of NPR updation in the state.

“On January 17, the Union government had convened a meeting on NPR. I won’t be going, neither any representative of my government will attend that meeting,” she said while addressing a rally here.

“If I don’t attend, there is a person here in Kolkata (Governor Dhankhar), who is the representative of the Union government. He might say that he is dismissing my government. He can very well do that, I don’t care. But, I will not allow CAA-NPR-NRC,” she asserted.

Last week, during a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kolkata, Banerjee had urged him to rethink on the amended Citizenship Act and withdraw the contentious legislation along with the NPR.

“The Left and the Congress are spreading canards. They are saying NPR is underway in the state. It is absolutely false. We had stayed the process of NPR updation last month itself,” she added.