TMC MPs protest over pending Central dues

Trinamool Congress MPs staged a protest in Parliament complex on Friday over the issue of pending Central dues for West Bengal, and charged that a ‘vindictive regime’ is starving an entire State to settle political scores.

Holding placards, they raised slogans demanding that the pending amount be given to the State.  Party leaders have claimed that the Centre owed the State Rs 52,000 crore under MGNREGA. “The State of West Bengal has been constantly deprived by the Modi Government because they can’t win in Bengal. Today, the 100-day job guarantee is a right given to people by an Act of Parliament, but Rs 52,000 crore is now pending from the Government of India,” Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev said.

“It is a complete lie by the Modi Government when it says there is no action taken report or utilisation certificate. All documents have been submitted, all paperwork is complete on the part of the Government of Bengal, but they are refusing to release MGNREGA money,” she said.

“This is illegal, this is inhuman, it's a deprivation of Bengal and discrimination against Bengal,’ she said.

TMC MPs had also staged a protest on Wednesday and Thursday over the issue in the Parliament complex.

In a social media post on Friday, the TMC said nearly Rs 2 lakh crore is owed by the Centre. “Bengal has been held hostage by a regime that punishes states for refusing to bow before Delhi’s imperial arrogance,” it charged. “They have blocked MGNREGA wages, denied Awas Yojana houses, strangled Jal Jeevan Mission funds, because Bengal refused to kneel. This is the ugly truth: a vindictive regime is starving an entire state to settle political scores. But Delhi’s zamindari delusion ends here,” it said.

“This fight will now explode from Bengal’s streets to the floor of Parliament. We will not allow a single rupee of Bengal’s rightful dues to be looted, blocked, or siphoned by a power-hungry Centre that survives on coercion,” it said.

In a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Monday, Minister of State for Rural Development Kamlesh Paswan had said the release of funds to West Bengal under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.