Trinamul Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee has asked her party leaders to go to the people and tell them about the Centre’s conspiracy not to release funds due to West Bengal.

Before leaving East Midnapore, Banerjee told leaders like Akhil Giri, Soumen Mahapatra to organize a movement to tell people about the conspiracy of the saffron party to deprive the state financially.

As chief minister, Banerjee had written letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to release the funds that are long overdue. She had organized a two-day dharna to protest against the delay in clearing the money meant for houses for rural poor and 100 days’ work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme. Trinamul national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, along with 25 MPs met the secretary of rural development ministry, yesterday, urging him to release the funds within 15 days. The Trinamul delegation failed to meet the Union minister for rural development Giriraj Singh as he was not available in office.

Trinamul Congress leaders alleged that local BJP leaders had convinced their counterparts in New Delhi that Trinamul would do badly in the ensuing panchayat election if the funds meant for rural development were stopped. Accordingly, the Centre is not releasing the fund.

Trinamul has decided to launch a movement up to the block level to tell people about the real picture. From May 2022, Trinamul has been constantly writing to the Union ministers requesting them to release funds.

Miss Banerjee during her speech in East Midnapore had said those local BJP leaders who had conspired with the Centre not to release funds had no right to stay in the state. Political experts said the saffron party’s scheme to put Trinamul in trouble by not releasing funds would backfire.

Trinamul Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee will go to Hooghly to address a public meeting on 20 April. She has decided to visit the districts and tell people how Centre’s delay in releasing funds had affected state’s development.

The movement will start throughout the state soon to show how the BJP had stalled state’s development deliberately before the panchayat election.