Trinamool Congress MPs took their protest to the gates of Parliament on Thursday, stepping up pressure on the Centre over funds they say are owed to West Bengal.
The party’s MPs assembled at Vijay Chowk and marched towards the Parliament complex, holding placards and raising slogans. At the centre of their protest is the long-running dispute over Central dues.
“The BJP government has not paid Rs 2 lakh crore dues which are for the people of West Bengal... We are protesting to demand that the pending amount should be paid," TMC Lok Sabha chief whip Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra added that the impasse spans several key schemes. “The Centre owes West Bengal rightful dues under PM Awas Yojna, Jal Jeevan Mission and MGNREGA,” she said.
Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen echoed this, saying, “We are staging a protest and raising slogans because the Centre is not paying the dues”.
For months, the TMC has been questioning why MGNREGS has not resumed in the state despite the Supreme Court upholding a Calcutta High Court order directing the Centre to restart the scheme.
The Centre had halted funds for more than three years citing corruption and procedural violations.
Earlier this week in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Rural Development Kamlesh Paswan detailed the Centre’s stand.
He said funds were stopped from March 9, 2022 under Section 27 of the MGNREGA Act due to “continued non-compliance with the directives of the Centre by the State.”
Paswan also placed the pending figures on record: as of March 8, 2022, West Bengal’s total liability stood at Rs 3082.52 crore, Rs 1457.22 crore under wages, Rs 1607.68 crore for materials, and Rs 17.62 crore under administrative costs.