Mamata Banerjee says West Bengal to skip NPR meeting on 17 Jan, dares Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to 'dismiss' state govt

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 17 January. She also dared Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to “dismiss” the state government for not toeing the line of the Centre. [caption id=“attachment_6783231” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. PTI[/caption] Mamata, who has been at the forefront of protests against the NPR, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), said the West Bengal government had already stayed the process of NPR updation in the state. “On 17 January, 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 in Kolkata. “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, Mamata 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.