The row over alleged denial of wages for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) continued in West Bengal on Saturday with Union Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti addressing a press conference here and Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee continuing his sit-in outside the Raj Bhavan on the third consecutive day.
Addressing a press conference at the State party office, the Minister said the Centre had never deprived West Bengal of its MGNREGS dues, and called the Trinamool Congress protest in Delhi over the issue a tamasha (drama)’ .
The Minister said that she waited for nearly two-and-a-half hours to meet a Trinamool Congress delegation, but its leadership kept making different claims about the number of members of the delegation and insisted that she meet the “people (deprived of wages)” first.
Flanked by West Bengal’s Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari and State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar, Ms. Jyoti quoted figures of MGNREGS funds released by the BJP government at the Centre. The Minister said that while the Congress-led UPA government released ₹4,400 crore from 2005 to 2014, the BJP government had released ₹54,000 crore in the past nine years.
The Trinamool leadership, led by general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, continued their protest on the third day outside the Raj Bhavan. The party leaders claimed that the Union Minister was forced to come to West Bengal because of the protests.
“Bengal doesn’t bow to anyone. Bohiragoto Zamindars bow to the people of Bengal. Shri @abhishekaitc Rattled by our Raj Bhavan dharna, MoS @SadhviNiranjan was forced to come to Bengal for a press conference. Likewise, the oppressive @BJP4India Govt will soon be compelled to release Bengal’s rightful share of MGNREGA & Awas funds,” the Trinamool Congress tweeted from its official handle.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Trinamool leaders met Governor C.V. Ananda Bose at the Darjeeling Raj Bhavan. The Governor is in north Bengal taking stock of the flood situation in the Teesta. The delegation consisted of MPs Kalyan Banerjee and Mohua Mitra. “Governor to take up the matter with the Govt of India for the sake of the people of West Bengal,” a statement from the Raj Bhavan said.
The Trinamool Congress has been staging a protest outside the Raj Bhavan demanding that the Governor take up the issue of denial of MGNREGS funds with the Centre. The State’s ruling party held protests on October 2 and 3 in New Delhi before starting the demonstration outside the Raj Bhavan. On October 3, a delegation led by Mr. Banerjee was dragged out of the Krishi Bhavan when the leaders went to meet the Minister of State over the issue.
