The Trinamool-BJP face off on Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Yojna hit a new low with the Bengal ruling party come down heavily on Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for “peddling lies” for political gains.

State Finance Minister Dr Amit Mitra on Monday hit out at Sitharaman for “telling such a big lie” so as to gain political mileage by misleading people by suggesting that the Bengal Government had failed to produce its district-wise data on the migrant workers when demanded by the Centre for earmarking funds for the central scheme for the jobless migrant workers of the State.

“Garib Kalyan Yojna … the name is lofty but in reality it is full of politics… it is being used to further political gains,” Mitra said in a very hard-hitting statement before asserting that the State Government had indeed complied to all the requisitions and directions given by the Centre to enable itself get funds for the jobless migrant workers who had returned from the host-spot areas.

Rattling out the dates of the Centre-State correspondence on the issue Mitra said “We received a letter to the PNRT Department on June 23rd asking us to send district-wise data of the migrant workers. We complied with the directives and sent the requisite data by 7 pm in the evening…. And I have the documents with me. “Then on June 25 there was yet another later this time asking for block-wise data of such workers. We complied with this too with immediate effect and yet our name was struck out of the recipient states I do have copies of the entire transaction regarding the issue ….”

Alleging that the BJP was trying to play politics when the people of the State were languishing Mitra said the “one would not expect such a big lie from the Finance Minister of the country… I think either she is telling a like or she has been wrongly informed about the issue.”

Sitharaman had earlier the BJ attacked the Bengal Government for its “lackadaisical” approach in dealing with such sensitive issues alleging the State Government had not sent the data on migrant workers despite repeated requests.

Later when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was asked to comment on Mitra’s statement she refused to comment saying “whatever the Government had to say has been said by Dr Mitra.”