Trinamool Congress and BJP were involved in a slugfest over MGNREGA dues to West Bengal on Wednesday, two days after TMC general secretary Abhisek Banerjee along with party leaders and job card holders met the governor and the party withdrew the sit-in near the Raj Bhavan.
BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar, who had in the past blamed TMC leaders of siphoning Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) funds, in a post on 'X' accused the party of not coming up with "proper expenditure reports" while insisting on the release of funds.
Majumdar said in his official handle, "Unauthorised payment, excess payment - these are the terms that come up every time questions are raised on payments issued by West Bengal's TMC govt..."
Yet, the TMC is unrelenting on the Centre releasing funds for MGNREGA without providing adequate and proper expenditure reports, he said.
"The Centre will clear dues once the state comes clean and not a single deserving one will be deprived," he told reporters.
Senior TMC leader and West Bengal minister Sashi Panja retorting sharply said, "No zamindari provision can deprive the toiling people of Bengal of their dues".
Panja posted on the microblogging site, "48 National Livestock Mission and central teams visited Bengal, with action taken reports submitted for each observation received.
Wondering if Majumdar was ignorant in comprehending that a high number of
labourers had worked under MGNREGS, she said "DrSukantaBJP must be either obstinate or ignorant to not be able to comprehend that 21 lakh labourers worked under MGNREGS and no zamindari provision can deny them their rightful dues."
Majumdar, an MP, had earlier accused TMC of not utilising properly the money granted for the 100 days' work programme for the poor in rural Bengal in the past. He also
claimed that the Centre had withheld the money for MGNREGA for the past one year as the
state failed to submit proper break-up and estimates.
The slugfest took place after Governor CV Ananda Bose met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his New Delhi residence and apprised him of the Bengal government's claims for central funds on account of MGNREGA.
The Centre said that there were discrepancies in the accounts of the scheme provided by West Bengal and payments were therefore delayed.
Banerjee, along with TMC MLAs, MPs, ministers, and MGNREGA workers,
held protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on October 3 and went to the rural development ministry there to meet Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti. But they claimed that after waiting for about an hour and half, the union minister of state for rural development declined to meet them and limited their delegation to five members.
