West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi later this month to seek the release of Central funds to the State.
Ms. Banerjee said on December 9 that she had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking an appointment on any date between December 18 and 20 in New Delhi.
“I will meet him [the Prime Minister] with some of my MPs. They are not paying our dues, especially for the 100-day work scheme [MGNREGS]. Funding for rural roads and even health schemes have been cancelled. If the Prime Minister doesn’t give us time, I will see what I can do,” the Trinamool Congress chairperson said in Siliguri.
Ms. Banerjee said that she will visit the national capital on December 17, stay there till December 20 and also attend a meeting of the Opposition INDIA bloc.
This is not the first time that the West Bengal Chief Minister will be meeting the Prime Minister over the delay in release of funds to key Central schemes such as the MGNREGS. Ms. Banerjee had met the Prime Minister in August 2022 and also written several letters on the issue.
On November 29, Ms. Banerjee wrote to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention for release of funds under the National Health Mission (NHM) to the State. Funds to MGNREGS, including the wages of a large number of workers, have been stopped over allegations of corruption in the implementation of the scheme. The Trinamool leadership wants to raise the issue of delay in release of Central funds during the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign in the State.
Sources in the Trinamool suggest that the party chairperson will raise the issue of Mahua Moitra’s expulsion from Lok Sabha, during her visit to New Delhi.
