TMC leaders including Abhishek Banerjee, Derek O'Brien protesting inside Krishi Bhavan in Delhi detained by police
₹15,000 crore in dues to the state under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and PM Awas Yojana. The BJP has rejected the charge and accused the TMC of doing a "drama" in Delhi to divert attention from the scams in West Bengal. Lok Sabha MP from Krishnanagar Mahua Moitra alleged the Centre is collecting taxes from West Bengal, but not giving the state's dues.
"We have not come here to beg but for our rights... Mamata Banerjee is fighting not only for Bengal, but for the people of the entire country," the firebrand leader said. "All those people who are close to BJP and Modiji don’t work as labourers.
It is the poor people who have worked and are not getting paid. Eleven lakh people who deserve to get homes under Awas Yojna are not getting money," she alleged. Demanding the release of funds by the Centre, West Bengal Minister of Rural Development Pradip Mazumdar said Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh, in a meeting with him on November 7, 2022, had assured that the funds would be released.
"There is no difference between the poor people of Begusarai (Giriraj Singh's constituency) and Bengal," Mazumdar said. "They have not released the rightful funds even after our repeated attempts. The people who withheld our funds even after promising to release them have made false promises in 2019," he said.
TMC leaders are scheduled to meet Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti as Giriraj Singh is not in Delhi. On Monday, at a press conference held in his constituency Begusarai, Giriraj Singh alleged that the Center's money was "siphoned off" by the state government. The minister said over 25 lakh job cards have been deleted in the state and added that the Centre was
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