Former Trinamool Congress MLA Debasish Kumar returned a large stock of undistributed relief material, which he is said to have received from the civil defence department during his tenure as MLA from Rashbehari.

Nine hundred tarpaulin sheets and 300 blankets stored in a godown were handed over to representatives of the civil defence department on Wednesday.

The sight of hundreds of tarpaulin sheets and blankets being taken out of Kumar’s office on Sarat Bose Road near Deshapriya Park provided fresh sparks to allegations of misappropriation of money and materials during the Mamata Banerjee regime.

Over the past few weeks, relief material have been recovered from several local Trinamool offices across Bengal, raising questions about how they ended up there.

Sources said Kumar initiated the return by writing a letter to the director of the West Bengal Disaster Management, under the civil defence department at Tran Bhawan.

“With due respect, I would like to bring to your kind notice that during my tenure as MLA of 160 Rashbehari Assembly Constituency, certain relief materials were received from your esteemed Department for distribution. However, the said materials are presently lying unused and undistributed.... In the above circumstances, I seek your kind guidance and specific direction from your Department regarding the further course of action to be taken with the aforesaid materials. You are requested to kindly intimate whether the materials are to be distributed through any approved mechanism or returned to your Department in accordance with the prevailing rules and procedures,” Kumar wrote on May 25.

Kumar declared that he wanted to return 900 pieces of tarpaulin and 300 blankets.

“Every MLA is allotted relief material such as blankets, tarpaulin sheets and garments twice a year — ahead of Durga Puja and Eid. The stock in question was meant for Eid,” Kumar told Metro on Wednesday.

“Since Rashbehari has a relatively small Muslim population, not all of it could be distributed. Within a week of the election results, I wrote to the civil defence department expressing my willingness to return the unused materials,” Kumar told Metro

“Had I won the polls, I could have kept the materials with me. Since I lost the election, I have to return it,” he added.

In response to his letter, the civil defence department had asked him to keep the materials ready on June 10. On Wednesday, a team from the civil defence department came and collected the relief materials.