Kolkata, Feb 20 (IANS): The leader of opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cautioning him about an alleged attempt by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to deliberately spread rumours about purported cancellation of Aadhaar cards of some individuals of the state.

In the letter to the Prime Minister, a copy of which is available with IANS, Adhikari accused the Chief Minister of “intentionally and deliberately creating panic among the people of the state by peddling politically-motivated fake news that the Central government is going to deactivate Aadhaar cards before the Lok Sabha elections in order to deprive the beneficiaries from receiving the benefits of various social welfare schemes”.

The leader of opposition also claimed that the Chief Minister's proposal to issue an identity card from the state government as an alternative to Aadhaar is an unauthorised interference in the subject matter of the Union List as enlisted in the 7th Schedule of the Constitution.

In the letter, Adhikari accused the Chief Minister of going ahead with such misleading propaganda even after it became clear that certain individuals received messages of cancellation of Aadhaar cards by mistake because of some technical glitch in the regional Aadhaar processing office in Ranchi.

“This is not the first time that Mamata Banerjee has tried to create hysteria over Aadhaar cards. In April last year, she had alleged that Aadhaar verification was supposedly a ploy to implement CAA and NRC in West Bengal,” Adhikari wrote.