Job scheme funds stuck, TMC to send 1 cr letters to PM

Alipurduar (WB), April 8

Advertisement

Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday said the party would send PM Narendra Modi one crore signed letters of daily wage earners of West Bengal, who could not get employment under MGNREGA as the Centre allegedly did not release funds for the project for the state.

Upping the ante against the BJP-led government at the Centre ahead of panchayat elections, Banerjee — considered number two in the TMC — said party workers would hit the streets of Delhi if the government did not release money which was due to the state.

Addressing a public meeting here, he said: “From April 16, our workers will reach out to the 1.38 crore families who could not be employed in any project (under MGNREGA). We will collect their signed letters to the PM and send over one crore to the Centre in a month.” Banerjee alleged that BJP MPs and MLAs in the state were asking the Centre not to release the funds. “By doing so, they (BJP) are attacking the hapless people. We will always stand against tyranny. They are taking revenge for the 2021 defeat but we won’t let our people down,” he declared. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had met PM Modi twice to facilitate the release of funds while a delegation of party MPs had sought an appointment with Union Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Giriraj Singh, “but he did not meet them despite being in Delhi”, the TMC leader said.

He charged Union Minister John Barla, Member of Parliament from West Bengal, and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari with conspiring against the people of the state. “These two leaders and several others have asked the Centre not to release MGNREGA funds to the state,” he said. “Have they been elected to work against people’s interest,” the TMC leader asked.