Trinamool MPs demand white paper on MGNREGS funds for West Bengal
New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MPs on Wednesday staged a protest in the Parliament complex, demanding the government to come out with a white paper on funds allocated to West Bengal under the MGNREGS and PMAY. Trinamool MPs from both Houses stood in the Parliament complex holding blank, white placards and raising slogans. The party's Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev said Trinamool's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had demanded a white paper on the allocations made to West Bengal in March 2024. "In March 2024, Abhishek Banerjee threw a challenge at Modiji and Amit Shah to release a white paper on the allocations made to Bengal. He challenged them to an open debate. It has been 21 months since then, but the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Modi government have not been able to say what they gave to Bengal and its allocations," Dev said. "Therefore, today we protested with white papers in our hand to remind the Modi-Shah government that you continue to deprive Bengal and make false assertions inside both the Houses of Parliament only to malign the state because you can't win an election in Bengal," she said.
Trinamool MPs have staged multiple protests in the Parliament complex during the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, demanding payment of Central dues to West Bengal. The ruling party of Bengal has alleged that the Centre owes the state Rs 2 lakh crore, including Rs 52,000 crore under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The Ministry of Rural Development has said the total pending liability pertaining to West Bengal under MGNREGA as on March 8, 2022, when the scheme was stopped, stood at Rs 3,082.52 crore -- Rs 1,457.22 crore under the wage component, Rs 1,607.68 crore under the material component, and Rs 17.62 crore under the administrative component. However, the Trinamool said the dues for work already done include Rs 3,700 crore under the wage component, and Rs 3,200 crore under non-wage component. It also calculated the projected dues owed by the Centre for the time when the scheme was not implemented, which, it said, amounts to Rs 28,400 crore under the wage component, and Rs 16,400 crore under the non-wage components, totalling to around Rs 51,700 crore.
