The Indian Express | 2 months ago | 08-01-2023 | 11:40 am
AS THE BJP and Trinamool Congress trade charges over a Central team visit to West Bengal to check irregularities in the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, heat has been rising over another Union government scheme in the state, ahead of its coming panchayat polls.December 26 marked a year since the payment of MNREGS dues to West Bengal were last cleared by the Centre, with the TMC government raising the issue repeatedly.Recently, the NREGA Sangarsh Morcha, which raises issues connected to the scheme, accused the Centre of withholding over Rs 7,500 crore of MNREGS funds to West Bengal. It added that non-payment of wages of those who took up work under the rural employment scheme was a violation of their fundamental rights.The Centre has cited “non-compliance of Central government directives” for withholding the funds. Targeting the Centre over this, founder member of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan Nikhil Dey also took up the matter, tweeting: “The Centre says the state is corrupt — so cut funds off! Who suffers?”Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written several letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising both the delay in payment of MNREGS as well as GST dues to the state.In a letter sent in May last year, Mamata sought the PM’s intervention for release of both MNREGS and PM Awas Yojana funds, adding: “In West Bengal, wage payment is pending for more than four months as Government of India is not releasing funds to the State to the tune of nearly Rs 6500 Crore-Rs 3000 Crore against wage liabilities and Rs 3500 Crore against non-wage liabilities.”In November, she said: “I personally met the Prime Minister and spoke to him on the matter. Will I have to touch his feet now?”The same month, West Bengal Panchayat Minister Pradip Majumdar met Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh in Delhi and, after the meeting, expressed hope of MNREGS funds being cleared soon. However, the money remains stuck.Majumdar told The Indian Express, “We have been asking for funds but the Centre is not keen to look into the matter.”The BJP said the TMC government was itself to blame for the delay, on account of “rampant corruption” and “mismanagement of funds”. “The Centre is ready to release funds. But first the state government has to give an account of the funds already released. If the state fails in this, why would the Centre send more funds?”The party said the people know “the truth”. “They know that TMC leaders and workers misuse the Centre’s funds. They even changed names of the Centre’s schemes and passed them as their own… But the Centre does not want to stall the development of the state, and we believe everything will be cleared in due time,” BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said.However, the matter is unlikely to be resolved soon. Asked why the Centre stopped the release of funds to Bengal, a Rural Development Ministry official said this was following reports of “irregularities” in the scheme’s implementation in the state. “Besides, the state government was not sending action taken reports. Despite several communications from the Centre, the state did not plug the leakages.”Asked when the pending dues of West Bengal would be cleared, the official said it depended upon compliance of rules by the state government.State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury accused both the TMC government and Centre of playing with the lives of people. “The Centre must clear the pending funds. The state also has to ensure that such funds are properly utilised. However, both are playing politics for own benefit ahead of the panchayat polls. We always say that the two parties have a tacit understanding,” Chowdhury said.The CPM also slammed the CPM and BJP, saying their politics had left hardworking people without their earnings. “It is due to the rampant corruption of the TMC government that we are witnessing this,” senior CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty said.