Kolkata, Apr 27 (PTI) Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar on Sunday alleged that the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal was misleading the minorities over the Waqf (Amendment) Act, maintaining that it has been enacted for the welfare of the poor Muslims.

Majumdar, who is also the West Bengal BJP president, claimed that Waqf properties in the state were being looted by some vested interests.

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"Muslims are being misled by the TMC over the Waqf (Amendment) Act, which is for the welfare and benefit of the poor Muslims," he said addressing a rally at Lalbagh in Murshidabad district, which witnessed communal clashes during protests against the Act.

"Poor Muslims have remained poor while some have become rich by resorting to illegal means," he said.

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Majumdar claimed that the Mamata Banerjee dispensation has become a government of doles, but that it is not working towards the safety and security of people.

He asserted that the BJP "will not allow Murshidabad to turn into another Bangladesh".

Stating that Karna Subarna, a place in the region, was the land of King Sashanka of the Gaur kingdom in the seventh century, Majumdar said that this was way before the place came to be known as the land of Nawabs of Bengal.

"We have to change the idea that Murshidabad is the land of Nawabs. We do not deny that this was also the land of Siraj-Ud- Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal Subah, but more than that it was the land of King Shashanka," the Union Minister of State for Education said.

Claiming that the police administration had not done its work properly during the recent Murshidabad violence, Majumdar alleged that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was indulging in "politics of appeasement,"

"The Chief Minister had said that people from Bangladesh had perpetrated the violence in Murshidabad, but those arrested by the police on the charge of the murder of the father and son at Jafrabad are locals," he said.

"If the police cannot provide security to the Hindus, then they have the right to keep weapons in self-defence," he said.

A report by the West Bengal government to the Calcutta High Court on the situation in Murshidabad district had stated that widespread incidents of violence had occurred between April 8 and 12 by mobs in connection with protests over the Waqf (Amendment) Act.

It stated that a section of the mob had vandalised, looted and torched many private shops, temples and houses, etc at several places in Dhuliyan town under Samserganj police station and had also blocked National Highway 12 at some places in Murshidabad district.

Majumdar claimed that the Jagannath Temple, which is scheduled to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Digha, the seaside resort town by the Bay of Bengal coast, is named "Jagannath Cultural Centre" and as such is not a temple.

The Union Minister asserted that the perpetrators of the terror attack in Kashmir's Pahalgam will not be spared.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)