Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamul Congress national general secretary, asked the Central government to confirm whether 20 lakh people had worked under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme in Bengal, and if that was the case, under which law they have been deprived of their dues.

He was talking to newsmen at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport today after returning from Delhi, where he led a two-day protest against the Centre’s withholding funds due to Bengal for the MGNREGA and Awas Yojana schemes.
Mr Banerjee said: “It is my question to Mr Giriraj Singh, Union minister for Rural Devel- opment whether 20 lakh peo- ple had worked under MGNREGA. If yes then under which Act they have been deprived of their money?”

He said: “If there is cor- ruption as claimed by the minister, why has no FIR had been filed for the past two years? The Centre has stopped pay-ing the dues from 2021.”
The Trinamul genral secretary said a procession will be held tomorrow at 3 p.m. and a delegation will meet the Governor and he will be requested to write to the Centre why the dues of the aggrieved job card holders have not been cleared.

The Governor, CV Ananda Bose, is however, unlikely to be present at the Raj Bhavan tomorrow, as he is currently in his home state of Kerala, and is unlikely to return immedi- ately. Mr Banerjee, referring to the events last night at the Krish Bhavan where he and mem- bers of a Trinamul Congress delegation were manhandled and detained, said Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Union minister of state for Rural Development had initially kept the 40 member delegation waiting for more than two hours.

“She was supposed to meet usat6p.m.andat8.45p.m,a CISF officer told us that she had left the office through the back door.We waited for so long and there had been four Facebook lives. If the CCTV footage are deciphered then it will be seen how many times our MPs had gone to her office to ask when she would meet us.” He alleged that the security agency per- sonnel had forcible thrown out the women MPs and veteran leaders like Saugata Roy, Pra- sun Banerjee were manhand led.

“We were allowed inside the Krishi Bhavan after checking our identity cards and four aggrieved job card holders had their identity cards too.”
“Just wait for a few months, we will organise a bigger protest programme in New Delhi under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee,” Mr Banerjee said.