Terming the Trinamool Congress’s claim of non-release of MGNREGA funds baseless the Bharatiya Janata Party clarified that the union government is following the law of the land.

Speaking to The Statesman, In Charge of BJP’s National Information & Technology Department and Co-incharge West Bengal Amit Malviya said that the rule book demands complete documents and every state needs to provide the relevant document. Each state has provided and got the funds”.

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Political parties present the figures before the public by wrapping them in lies alleged by the BJP. The false propaganda and lamentations about MNREGA are also a demonstration of the same. But it would have been better if the General Secretary of Trinamool Congress had understood this plan before making allegations.

Malviya on his Twitter handle further shared some data explaining the allocation of money under the MNREGA Scheme. He said MGNREGA is a demand-based scheme, which means when there is more demand more money is allocated. Under the UPA regime from 2006-07 to 2013-14, 1,660 crore man-days were generated amounting to Rs 2,13,220 crore, and they managed to complete only 153 lakh works.

“ Abhishek Banerjee feels that we are unfair and doing injustice towards the people of West Bengal. I would request him to go to court to challenge us. The government has never stopped any funds but it is difficult to release funds with proper papers. We have just requested to provide funds. On this, the Trinamool Congress agitated but we will keep demanding the Papers.

Malviya further mentioned on his Twitter account and shared details explaining that the taxpayers’ money need to be valued. In contrast, under the NDA regime from 2014-15 to 2022-23, 2,341 crore man-days were generated, Rs 5,76,303 crore released, and 602 lakh works completed. Such a huge difference should be embarrassing for those standing in opposition and making empty criticisms. The claim about budget cuts for MNREGA in 2023-24 is also false.

The Modi government has repeatedly revised its budget estimates to meet the growing demands. For example, in FY 2021-22, what started as a BE (Budget Estimate) of Rs 73,000 crore was revised to Rs 98,000 crore. For FY 2020-21, what started as BE of Rs 61,500 crore was revised to Rs 1,11,500 crore, the details posted on Twitter said.

In the financial year 2022-23, the Modi government has worked to provide wage employment to 99.81% of rural families against the total demand under MNREGA. The rule says that if employment is not provided within 15 days of request, the person is entitled to receive a daily unemployment allowance.