Madhab Chandra Laya, a 25-year-old Trinamool Congress gram panchayat member from Namkhana in South 24-Parganas, returned "cut money" to 45 residents of his village last week.

The villagers had to cough up the money for getting financial assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

“I did not take the money for myself,” Laya, a Trinamool gram panchayat member from Shibrampur under Namkhana block, told The Telegraph Online.

“The entire system is broken. The rules for the housing schemes are stringent. Some of them did not meet the eligibility criteria. I was told by officials to get Rs 5,000 from each family who wanted to get the financial assistance,” he said.

Laya, who won his first gram panchayat election in 2023, said he had decided to return the money before the election results were declared on May 4.

“If I had tried to return the money while the election process was on I would have been accused of trying to lure voters with cash. I waited for the results to be declared,” said Laya.

“I had called a meeting of the people who had received the funds and told them I will return the money.”

Amit Malviya, in charge of the BJP’s national information and technology department, shared a video from Namkhana’s Patbunia village.

“The fear of investigation is now so palpable that local leaders seem to be scrambling to return “cut money” before the law catches up with them. When those who extorted the poor begin refunding money in public, it is not remorse at work, it is fear,” Malviya wrote in his post.

Laya has returned Rs. 5,000 to around 45 beneficiaries, though around 15 villagers are yet to be repaid.

Since the Trinamool was voted out of power in the Bengal Assembly election, the edifice of the once all-powerful party that ruled Bengal with an iron hand has begun to crumble.

The three-time chief minister and Trinamool chairperson, Mamata Banerjee, has to deal with a rebellion of at least 58 out of the 80 MLAs elected on a Trinamool ticket.

Ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament, some 20 of the 28 Trinamool MPs in the Lok Sabha are reportedly planning to do what a section of the MLAs have done in Bengal.

While the Trinamool chief has been busy fire-fighting, arrests of her party functionaries and elected representatives over bribery and corruption charges, some of them even paraded on the streets with rope around their waists, has become routine in Bengal,

Laya said in his booth (252 of Sagar Assembly) 72 persons had applied under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, a central scheme.

The first instalment of Rs. 60,000 reached the accounts of the beneficiaries towards the end of 2024.

“The rules are so stringent that some of the applicants did not meet the criteria though all of them are poor. Someone has got a brick wall; that makes them ineligible. I saw their homes, I knew how they lived and wanted them to get the benefit,” he said.

“For the second instalment I was told to deposit Rs 5,000 for each household in a sealed envelope.”

When the time came to return the money, it was done in a field in broad daylight. Laya’s father, the headmaster of a school, helped arrange Rs. 2.25 lakh that has been returned so far.

Laya is no longer living in Namkhana and has moved to Kolkata where he is pursuing an MBA in travel and tourism.

The BJP MLA from Sagar, Sumanta Mandal, said elected functionaries in panchayats and zilla parishads and officials involved in any wrongdoing will be probed.

“The panchayat department has announced audit of all government schemes. This has been our demand. Anybody who deprived people of their legitimate claims on government schemes or made false promises and forced them to pay bribes should be probed,” said Mandal.

Laya said he was prepared to face any probe.