Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamul Congress national general secretary, promised to launch a bigger movement to put pressure on Centre to get dues of 100 days’ work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.
At the same breath he assured people that arrangements would be made to clear their dues within six months.

He was addressing a gathering at Budge Budge Birlapur football ground this after- noon. People had gathered to receive puja gifts from Mr Banerjee.

“If chief minister Mamata Banerjee can spend Rs 37,000 crore on Lakshmir Bhandar, then plans can be made to clear the dues worth Rs 8,000 crore of those involved in 100 days’ work.” Without naming the Bharatiya Janata Party, he said, “Bengal will never sur- render before the outsiders. The Centre had tried all sorts of tricks to pressurize us. But we did not surrender and will continue to fight against them,” he said, adding, “BJP is trying to take revenge as it had lost the election battle in 2021.”

Criticizing the saffron party, he said, “They had spread canards that the Bengal government did not allow Durga Puja to take place in Bengal and now their leaders are coming to inaugurate pujas here.”

Mr Banerjee said those who had come to the area to get votes in 2019 Lok Sabha election could not be seen when Covid-19 struck. “Dur- ing Covid, we had opened 21 community kitchens and food was supplied to the peo- ple irrespective of political colour. This is Trinamul’s tra- dition, we do not pick and choose while serving people in times of need.”

He thanked party MLA Ashok Deb for taking him to different areas under Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat in 2014 during his inaugural debut in the parliamentary election. “Budge Budge Assembly segment had given me a lead of 7,100 votes in 2014, which went up to 56,000 votes in 2019 and I defeated my rival candidate by 3.21 lakh votes. This had been possible because people had voted for us. Trinamul Congress has the back- ing of the people which the opposition parties do not have.”

Mr Banerjee claimed that the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat is one of the finest constituencies in the coun- try in terms of development. “We have published the money spent on various schemes year-on-year. In the Budge Budge Assembly seg-ment, Rs 600 crore had been spent for construction and development of roads. One part of Chorial Bridge has been completed, while the construction of the remaining part will be completed in six months. Every household in the area will get drinking water,” he said.

Mr Banerjee said he would come to the area after the pujas and wished everyone a happy puja.