Malda, Jan. 5: Indications from Delhi that the Lok Sabha elections may be held early this year has left leaders here worried.

The news has suddenly reminded them of the Rs 3-crore relief sent by Writers’ Buildings for 6,000 families, most of who have been spending days under tarpaulin sheets since the September floods.

The money cannot be utilised once the Election Commission announces the dates of the Lok Sabha polls. The ever-promising politicians now realise that if the funds lie in the lockers during the polls, they will suffer.

The money, sent to rebuild houses of the flood victims, has been lying for the past four months with the district administration. The reason being lack of consensus among the authorities on the people to be included on the list of beneficiaries.

Today, as the leaders of various political parties flocked to the devastated Panchanandapur to discuss construction of a tenth embankment, they were almost driven out by angry residents.

Later, the parties held a meeting at the nearby Banitola High School, where it was decided that each family would be asked to choose a site and then apply for Rs 5,000.

Local MLA and minister for food processing Sailen Sarkar said: “The image of the Left Front has taken a beating because of the district administration’s failure to distribute the relief. They have delayed the release of funds by not preparing a final list of beneficiaries and we are being blamed for this.”

The relief was announced by finance minister Asim Dasgupta at Panchanandapur, where over 2,000 families were forced out of their houses. Sarkar said: “It is a shame we could not hand out the cash earlier.”

“Once the general elections are announced we will not be able to carry out any development work under the model code of conduct and the homeless will suffer,” he added.

A senior district official said: “The fault lay with the parties as the list of beneficiaries was supposed to be drawn up by the panchayats. There have been several occasions when the beneficiary list had more than one person from one family on it and it had to be changed.”

District magistrate Ashok Bala said he has instructed the block development officers to collect the final lists from the panchayats and send them to his office by January.