'Beti Bachao' scheme a failure, 'Kanyashree' won UN award: Mamata Banerjee

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday said the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' scheme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a flop whereas the Kanyashree scheme for girls introduced by her in West Bengal has won a UN award.

The West Bengal chief minister said the state government has won the United Nations Public Service Award for its Kanyashree programme, which was introduced in 2012 to aid the girl child in education and her wellbeing.

"Modi's 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' has not been able to provide any real help to the girl child and is a flop," she said at a rally here which falls in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency.

Countering Modi's claim that Banerjee is a 'speed breaker' in the path of West Bengal's development, she spoke of the number of welfare schemes and programmes started by her government.

She claimed that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre has curtailed funds for many projects such as ICDS and Asha for the welfare of women. But these have been kept alive by her dispensation in West Bengal with funds from the state government, she said.

Banerjee said that the TMC-Gorkha Janmukti Morcha combine has fielded Amar Rai, a son of the soil for the Lok Sabha elections, unlike the BJP which had got an "outsider" as its candidate for the Darjeeling seat, who won and was not seen again in the hills.

The BJP has fielded Raju Bista this time instead of S S Ahluwalia, who was elected in 2014 but had earned the ire of the people because of his absence from the hills during the 2017 agitation.