The Trinamul Congress today submitted a memorandum to the Union minister for rural development Giriraj Singh urging him to release funds as non-payment has affected lakhs of people.

A Trinamul delegation, led by Abhishek Banerjee, party’s national general secretary went to Krishi Bhavan to meet Mr Singh. Since the minister was not available, the delegation met the secretary of the ministry.

The delegation comprised 25 MPs, which included Saugata Roy, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Kanyan Banerjee, Mala Roy, Shatabdi Roy, Dr Shantanu Sen, Dola Sen, Arjun Singh, Sunil Mondol among others.

The delegation told the secretary that the ministry of rural development granted West Bengal an allocation of 11,36,488 houses on 24 November, 2022 with a directive to complete sanctioning funds within a month.

The state government launched a house-to-house verification and 11 lakh houses were allotted to deserving beneficiaries.

During the process 17, 67,000 ineligible houses were deleted from the list prepared in 2018 as a result of meticulous verification.

The memorandum further stated funds for the Awas Yojana not given without assigning any cause.

According to the ministry rules, the first installment of Rs 60,000 per beneficiary should be released to the bank account within seven days of the house being sanctioned.

The state’s share was disbursed in January, well ahead of time.

The Union government has not released its share even after three months of the sanctioning of the houses.

Talking to newsmen, Abhishek Banerjee said Bengal was the only state where funds had not been released. On June 16, 2022, Trinamul Congress parliamentary party delegation had urged Mr Singh to release the outstanding Rs 7, 130 crore towards Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.

He said till date the money had not yet been released. Mr Banerjee said the Union government cannot withhold the rights of the people by not sanctioning man days (person days) and delaying payments. It may be mentioned that chief minister Mamata Banerjee had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 12, 2022 requesting him to take initiative to release funds under MGNREGA and PM Awas Yojana.

Mr Banerjee regretted that despite the letters to the Union minister and prime minister no steps had been taken causing enormous hardship to lakhs of people. He said the Union government had sent 62 inspection teams for PMAY schemes and 49 teams for the MGNREGA. The Union government is intimidating West Bengal, Mr Banerjee alleged. The delegation urged the secretary of the ministry to take immediate steps to release the funds which are overdue.