Mamata keen to visit Dhaka

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Benerjee, who had skipped her visit to Bangladesh in September 2011 with then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, yesterday showed her keen interest to visit Bangladesh.

Mamata expressed her interest when Abida Islam, the outgoing Bangladeshi deputy high commissioner to India, extended an invitation of Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali to her in a meeting at the state secretariat "Nabanno".

Abida, who paid a farewell call on Mamata, was accompanied by her successor Zakir Hayat during the meeting.

The meeting took place amid speculations that there may be tension between the two about Indian media reports that a Trinamool Congress leader was allegedly involved in funneling Saradha chit fund money to Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh.

Talking to The Daily Star over the phone, Abida said it was purely a courtesy call as she was returning to Bangladesh on completion of her diplomatic assignment in Kolkata.

During the half-an-hour meeting, Mamata informed Abida that her state government decided to award noted singer Feroza Begum with the “Banga Bivushon Award” at a ceremony on September 22.

Mamata, who expressed her profound shock at the death of Feroza Begum, told Abida that she was saddened as she could not award the noted Nazrul singer while she was alive.

The WB chief minister discussed an entire range of bilateral issues with Abida and enquired about Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali.

Asked about latest media reports on funneling Saradha chit fund money to Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh, Abida said the matter did not come out in their discussion.

New report on Saradha scam

Leading Indian daily Hindustan Times reports that all opposition parties in West Bengal -- the Left, BJP and the Congress-- upped the demand for Mamata's resignation over the Saradha chit fund scam.

The BJP on Sunday alleged that she had benefited the most from the multi-crore Saradha Chit Fund scam, in which thousands of investors were allegedly duped, says the report published yesterday.

According to the report, Babul Supriyo, a BJP MP from Asansol, alleged that the arrestees are even giving away the amount of money that Mamataji and TMC General Secretary Mukul Roy received in this scam, adding that the charges against Rajya Sabha member Ahmed Hassan Imran playing a leading role in receiving funds from Bangladesh-based political party Jamaat-e-Islami to help TMC win the 2011 Assembly polls, were "not merely allegations, but are facts".

The CPI(M) demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should interrogate Mamata and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in connection with the scams, claims the report.

Suryakanta Mishra, leader of the opposition in the Bengal assembly and CPI(M) politburo member, also passed the blame on the BJP for the chit fund scams, alleging that Jaitley's tough stand on the scams in his first budget speech as finance minister stood in stark contrast with his decision to "have lunch on the same day with Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP KD Singh", says the report.

"The CBI should interrogate what relation Jaitley shares with Singh,” Mishra was quoted as saying.

State Congress leaders also reiterated their demand that Mamata step down till she was cleared of charges by the CBI. They also threatened to move the Supreme Court against Trinamool Congress' protest demonstrations alleging it was a contempt of court, claims the report.

According to the report, the TMC decided to hold more counter rallies across the state over the next three days to give a " fitting reply to those who are trying to malign the government " over the Saradha scam.

“The opposition parties are hurling allegations against us. We have decided to give them an appropriate answer and for that we would hold rallies from September 19 to 22,” Trinamool General Secretary Mukul Roy  was quoted as saying in the HT report.