Officials of the newly formed West Bengal Commission on Institutional Corruption on Thursday inspected two factories owned by former cabinet minister and rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Firhad Hakim in Kolkata, triggering a political row.
People living around the factory, however, claimed that the original unit was a small unit and the major expansion took place two years ago when Hakim was state urban development and municipal affairs minister and also Kolkata’s mayor. The complaint letter was shown to me. I pay rent for the land to the landlord every month. There is nothing illegitimate in this business. TMC Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy from the Mamata Banerjee camp targeted Hakim and the Bharatiya Janata Party government. “The inspection is an eyewash. Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari formed the Commission on Institutional Corruption in May, days after the BJP ousted the TMC government.
Because someone lodged a complaint, “The inspection was held.
Hakim, once one of TMC founder Mamata Banerjee’s closest aides but who joined the Ritabrata Banerjee-led rebel camp in June, said the inspection’s real intention was character assassination. If people are harassed in this manner then nobody will set up businesses,” Hakim said. We were told that Firhad Hakim was behind all big corruptions in Bengal but there has been no investigation,” Roy said.
