Trinamool to send one crore letters to Narendra Modi seeking release of MGNREGA funds
The Centre has not been allotting the employment scheme funds to West Bengal since December 2021, citing irregularities by the state government.
The Trinamool Congress on Saturday said that the party will send 1 crore letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, signed by workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme seeking the release of funds, reported The Hindu.
MGNREGA was introduced in 2005 by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and is aimed at enhancing the livelihood security of households in rural areas. The scheme guarantees 100 days of unskilled work annually for every rural household that wants it, covering all districts in the country.
Since December 2021, the Centre has not been allotting funds under the Act to West Bengal, citing violations in the implementation of the scheme by the state government.
The last wage instalment to workers in the state had been disbursed on December 26, 2021. Since then more than Rs 7,500 crore worth of MGNREGA funds to West Bengal has been withheld. Of this, the workers’ pending wages amount to Rs 2,744 crore.
Explained: Why the Centre has not paid MGNREGA wages in Bengal for a year
On Saturday, Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee warned that he will hold a seeking wages for MGNREGA workers in Delhi and will choke the national capital, reported The Hindu.
“If BJP does not release the funds, we will take out agitations, no matter what we have to do,” Banerjee said. “Be it strikes or andolans [protests], we will do everything to get the money that the people of West Bengal deserve. If needed, we will take the fight to Delhi, I give you my assurance.”
Banerjee also alleged that the funds were stopped as the BJP was unhappy over its loss to the Trinamool Congress in the Assembly elections in 2021.
“BJP lost to the TMC, that doesn’t mean that they [BJP] can torment innocent people?” he asked, according to The Indian Express. “Since the people of Bengal shooed away the ‘bohiragotos’ [outsiders] they cannot digest the loss.”
On March 29, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also held a two-day protest against the delay in the payments of MGNREGA workers in Kolkata.
