‘Aadhaar, job cards of over 94.76% beneficiaries linked’

KOLKATA: State Panchayats and Rural development minister Pradip Mazumdar during his speech on the state Budget concerning his department, presented data to bolster his claim as to how the Bengal government has performed exceptionally well in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme and obtained the Centre’s acclaim.

The minister also refuted the allegations of irregularities in the MGNREGA works as brought by the leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on the floor of the House. The minister told the House that Bengal has managed to complete the linking between Aadhaar and job cards for more than 94.76 per cent of the beneficiaries. Job cards for only 5.24 per cent of people need to be done in Bengal. According to Mazumdar, in BJP-ruled state Gujarat more than 47.49 per cent people are yet to complete their job card- Aadhaar linking whereas in Maharashtra over 58 per cent Aadhaar-job cards linking are yet to be done.

Without taking the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mazumdar said when the country is reeling under a huge debt; this gentleman (read Modi) wears very costly dresses. Following his statement, the BJP MLAs, including the leader of Opposition Adhikari shouted the slogan — “Modi Modi”. The Trinamool Congress countered BJPs slogan with — “Didi Didi”.

Mazumadr also told the House that Centre’s inspection teams have submitted reports saying that no irregularities have taken place in the Awas Yoaja scheme in Bengal. Mazumdar also mentioned that the state government has won the award on Convergence and Livelihood Augmentation for the fourth consecutive time in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) National Award from 2017 to 2020.

“How could Bengal win the best prize from the Centre on convergence and livelihood augmentation, had there been no development work? We also received acclaim from the Centre every year between 2015 and 2016,” Mazumdar said.

Regarding allegations of irregularities in the distribution of houses under the Awas Yojana, the minister said the list was prepared in 2018 and they were uploaded on the Centre’s website. Refuting Adhikari’s claim that during the last Panchayat polls, more than 30 per cent of the candidates from the ruling party won uncontested, the minister said in the Tripura election around 86 per cent of BJP candidates won uncontested.