"Asked Centre why allotted funds not given": West Bengal MoS Finance
Oct 08, 2023
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], October 8 : West Bengal Minister of State for Finance Chandrima Bhattacharya said she had asked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the GST council meeting on Saturday why the allotted funds were not given to the state and urged her to look into the matter.
"I have asked the Union Finance Minister why the allotted funds are not given to the state. I have asked the Minister to look into this matter and it has been documented," she said while addressing a protest march in Kolkata on Sunday.
Trinamool Congress is holding protests in Kolkata which entered into the fourth day on Sunday over the Centre's alleged delay in the allocation of funds under MGNREGA.
She said that this law (MGNREGA) was formed in 2005 and implemented in 2006. "The word "Guarantee" is in the name of MGNREGA. Then why are the workers deprived of their guaranteed funds?"
"The law says that one-third of the job cardholders need to be women. Even if there are more women job cardholders. Out of 21 lakh MGNREGA workers, more than 7 lakh are women who are deprived of the MGNREGA funds," she added.
This comes amid raids on two TMC strongmen- Firhad Hakim and Madan Mitra by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday morning in the municipal 'jobs scam' case.
Several TMC leaders have alleged that Sunday's raids are a reaction by the Bharatiya Janata Party against these ongoing protests in Kolkata.
West Bengal Minister Shashi Panja said on Sunday speaking to ANI, "BJP cannot fight politically, so it has released its two puppets CBI and ED... Because the central government had to bow down in front of our protest, it sent its two toys CBI and ED. This is a game to malign...But we will continue to fight on the real issues..."
Party MP Mahua Moitra on Friday said the demonstrations will continue till the state gets its 'due'.
