Beneficiaries of social welfare schemes staged protests in different offices in at least two districts of north Bengal on Friday, alleging that elected representatives of the Trinamool Congress had forcibly collected money from them.

Hundreds of beneficiaries from Maharajpur in Jadupur 1 panchayat of Malda district alleged that ₹20,000 each was deducted from the first instalment of ₹60,000 released for the construction of houses under a government scheme.

They staged a protest in the Englishbazar BDO office alleging that a Trinamool-backed panchayat member forcibly collected the “cut money” from them.

The agitating beneficiaries also submitted written complaints to the BDO office against local Trinamool panchayat member Aijul Sheikh, accusing him of collecting the money by threatening that further instalments would not be released unless the payment was made.

Local sources said around 100 beneficiaries were forced to hand over ₹20,000 each after the first instalment was credited to their bank accounts.

The protesters claimed that after paying the cut money, they did not receive the second instalment for house construction, leaving them unable to complete even the basic structure of their homes.

“We received ₹60,000 in the first phase for building houses. At that time, the local Trinamool member told us that unless we paid him ₹20,000, we would not receive the remaining instalments. Out of fear, nearly 100 beneficiaries gave the money,” said Asima Mondal, a beneficiary.

Dildar Sheikh, another protester, said that with only ₹40,000 left with them, it was impossible to complete the first phase of construction.

“We were too scared to speak out because the panchayat member threatened us repeatedly while Trinamool was in power. Now we want our money back,” he said.

Attempts to contact the accused panchayat member, Aijul Sheikh, were unsuccessful. His cellphone was switched off.

An official of the Englishbazar block administration confirmed that complaints had been received from the protesters.

“The allegations will be investigated, and strict action will be taken if the charges are found to be true,” the official said.

In Jalpaiguri, a group of people, along with some BJP workers, staged a protest in front of the Garalbari panchayat office in the Sadar block on Friday.

The protesters forced Kshitish Roy, the deputy chief, to move out of the office and demanded that Mampi Parvin, the chief, return the money she had collected from beneficiaries of different government schemes.

They alleged that some elected representatives of Trinamool collected money from beneficiaries in exchange for services related to job cards, housing schemes and land-related matters.

Parvin, however, denied the allegations.

“No corruption or collection of cut money took place during our tenure. The job card-related work was not carried out under my responsibility as the panchayat chief,” she claimed.