Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Trinamul leader Abhishek Banerjee and at least 600 elected representatives of the party will visit Rajghat on Gandhi Jayanti to pay tribute to the Father of the Nation.
The next day, on October 3, Mamata and Abhishek will be part of a Trinamul delegation that will meet Union rural development minister Giriraj Singh to demand that the Centre release funds held up since 2021 under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and other schemes.
The delegation will hand over 50 lakh letters that beneficiaries of various central government schemes in Bengal have written to the Narendra Modi government for the release of funds.
The initial plan, announced from the July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally stage, had been that lakhs of people from Bengal would march on the streets of Delhi on October 2 to demand the unshackling of the funds. However, Delhi police, which report to the Union home ministry, refused to grant permission for the rally, prompting Trinamul to redraw its protest programme.
Trinamul has been accusing the BJP-led Centre of withholding funds to the tune of Rs 1.15 lakh crore, which includes Rs 6,907 crore due to the state under the 100-day rural job scheme. An official said at least half of the dues under the NREGA were pending wages of workers.
“On the birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, our chief minister Mamata Banerjee, party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and all our MPs, MLAs, chiefs of zilla parishads and panchayat samities will visit Delhi’s Rajghat to pay tribute to Gandhiji. We will also meet Union rural development minister Giriraj Singh on October 3 to raise our demand for funds they have been held up,” Chandrima Bhattacharya, Bengal finance minister and president of the Trinamul Mahila Congress, told a news conference on Saturday.
On August 30, Trinamul had said it was denied clearance by the Delhi police to use Ramlila Maidan to house lakhs of people from Bengal who would take part in the proposed rally. On September 7, the Trinamul government sought permission for dharnas at Jantar Mantar, outside the house of minister Singh and at Krishi Bhavan on October 2 and 3.
“We are yet to get a response from the Delhi police in connection with our second letter,” said a Trinamul leader.
Trinamul MPs Derek O’Brien and Sudip Bandopadhyay on Saturday jointly wrote a letter to Singh seeking his appointment on October 3.