Bengal Assembly Speaker raises Central fund blockade issue with Union MoS for Rural dev in Delhi

Kolkata: Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee is learnt to have recently met Union Minister of State (MoS) for Rural Development, Faggan Singh Kulaste and raised the issue of Centre’s fund blockade for Bengal.

It was learnt Banerjee was attending the P20 Speaker’s Summit in Delhi. During this visit, sources said he wanted to meet the Union minister of Rural Development, Giriraj Singh to discuss the issue of fund blockade so that the money withheld under various schemes for Bengal can be disbursed as soon as possible. He was informed that Singh was not in Delhi and neither was the MoS of the department Niranjan Jyoti.

However, he got to know that there is another MoS of that department, Faggan Singh Kulaste. On getting intimation that Kulaste was available, Bengal government officials sought an appointment with the minister’s office and subsequently Banerjee met him. The discussion mainly focused on the disbursement of funds under 100-day work. Sources said MoS Kulaste assured Banerjee that he will look into the matter and figure out a solution.

Recently, a large delegation of Trinamool Congress and some deprived beneficiaries of Bengal, led by the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, attempted to meet the MoS Niranjan Jyoti but she did not meet them.

Abhishek subsequently staged another dharna at Kolkata outside Raj Bhavan following which Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose met a delegation of the party and subsequently informed Abhishek that he raised the matter with the Union Home minister Amit Shah during his Delhi visit.

Meanwhile, taking a dig at the BJP leader Suvendu Adhkari for his comment that roads in the state are in a deplorable condition even as the Puja festivities have begun, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh wrote on X: “It’s high time LoP @SuvenduWB stops his empty posturing and token gestures. If he genuinely cared about the state of rural roads, he wouldn’t have pleaded with the @BJP4India ZAMINDARS of Delhi to halt funds for PMGSY, under which a meager 825 km of roads, out of the proposed 6287.5 km, has been approved. While he was busy ego-massaging his masters, the Ma, Mati, Manush Govt. of Smt. @MamataOfficial, through the Pathashree-Rastashree scheme, achieved the construction & maintenance of 1 lakh kilometres of rural roads. Action over empty rhetoric, Mr. Adhikari!”