Kolkata, Oct 7: Union minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti on Saturday asserted that the Centre has never deprived West Bengal of its MGNREGA dues and statistics of the last nine years prove that.
The Union Minister of State for Rural Development, who was addressing a press conference here, however, alleged that there have been discrepancies in the utilisation of MGNREGA funds in the districts of the eastern state.
Dismissing the TMC’s allegations that she refused to meet the West Bengal ruling party’s team in New Delhi for talks regarding MGNREGA dues, she said, “I wanted to meet them and waited for nearly two-and-a-half hours for them. But they kept shifting goalposts on the number of members of their delegation.” “They are now leveling false allegations that I ran away through the back door. The TMC is spreading lies, they did not want to meet me, they just wanted to create drama,” she claimed. She expressed her willingness to engage in talks with the TMC delegation anytime but questioned the West Bengal ruling party’s sincerity on the issue. TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and party MLAs, MPs and ministers, along with those engaged in MGNREGA work, had recently staged a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and marched to the Rural Development Ministry at Krishi Bhawan, where they were scheduled to meet Jyoti.
However, after around an hour-and-a-half, the TMC leaders claimed that the minister refused to meet them, restricting the number of members in the delegation to five.
Responding to the Union minister’s allegations, the TMC said that if she is interested in talks, she must come to the protest venue outside Raj Bhavan and hold talks with the agitators. “If she is interested in talks, let her come to the protest venue and talk with us,” state minister Shashi Panja said.
TMC activists led by Abhishek Banerjee have been staging a sit-in demonstration outside Raj Bhavan over the issue. They asserted they will not lift their stir until Governor C V Ananda Bose met them at the protest site.
“If making us wait for three hours at Krishi Bhavan and having the Delhi Police assault our delegation wasn’t enough, @DrSukantaBJP now wants Shri @abhishekaitc to visit @BJP4Bengal’s party office and meet MoS @SadhviNiranjan there. We won’t budge an inch from the dharna site. If BJP leaders genuinely care about the welfare of the people, they should prove it by meeting us where the battle for justice rages – right here!” the party said in a post on its official X handle. (PTI)
