West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. file | Photo Credit: ANI
accused the central government of “deliberately depriving” West Bengal of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee SchemeMGNREGS) and other centrally sponsored schemes, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced that she would sit on a dharna on March 29 and 30.
“Even in this budget, no allocation was made for MNREGA for 100 days of work in the state. West Bengal is the only state where nothing has been given. No money for accommodation. They have not given us the pending money. Amount left for 55 lakh houses, we are completing 11 lakh [houses]he told reporters before leaving for Bhubaneswar.
comment comes a day later Hindu Told that the Union Ministry of Rural Development had decided to ban MGNREGS Fund for West Bengal For the financial year 2023-24.
The Center withheld the funds, invoking Section 27 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, for alleged widespread corruption in the implementation of the scheme from December 2021.
West Bengal is the only state against which this section has been invoked for such a long period.
The Chief Minister said that he had raised the issue of pending funds related to MNREGAHousing, Rural Roads with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and wrote several letters to them.
Ms. Banerjee said that Rs 1.15 lakh crore fund is pending with the Center for West Bengal. He also accused the Center of sending central teams to the state at the behest of the state BJP leadership. The Center currently owes the state Rs 7,500 crore, of which labor wages alone amount to Rs 2,744 crore.
West Bengal Minister Shashi Panja also addressed a press conference underlining The Hindu’s Report. Ms. Panja said it was unfortunate to see such headlines.
“This makes the political intention of the Central government very clear, as they could not win the 2021 assembly elections, they are taking revenge on the people of West Bengal. And ahead of the upcoming panchayat elections, the central government, acting on the advice of the state BJP, wants to create discontent by stalling MGNREGS for the state,” she said.
CPI(M) state secretary Mohammad Salim accused both the central government and the Trinamool Congress government in the state of misleading the people.
“We demand a white paper on this issue from both the state government and the central government. People have the right to know the reality beyond mutual discord. Besides, the poor workers have a right to receive their long-standing dues,” said Mr. Saleem.
With the state’s MGNREGA funds being stopped for the last 15 months, the debate has started on how long Section 27 can be implemented.
This clause clearly states that “suitable remedial measures” must be taken within a “reasonable time period”.
“For the vast and well-endowed bureaucracy that exists both at the Center and in the states, 15 months is too long a time to solve this problem. As far as we know, there is no new curative measure yet. Anuradha Talwar, president of Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samiti, said, there is no clear statement from the central government about the state government not taking corrective steps.
He said withholding of funds appears to be more of a political decision that seeks to address problems in implementation. Ms. Talwar said, “Instead of punishing corrupt officials, the employees who are actually working hard are being punished.”