The Centre and the TMC-ruled West Bengal government had a run-in on Thursday over pending Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) dues worth ₹7,130 crores that the union government owes to the State for the last five months.
The TMC asserted that if the funds are not released at the earliest, they will have to take “andolan” (protest) route, while Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh has claimed that the Centre stepped in after the State outrightly refused to comply to the programme's guidelines.
A delegation of the TMC MPs led by Lok Sabha floor leader Sudip Bandhopadhyay met Mr. Singh on Thursday. In a memorandum submitted to Mr. Singh, the TMC has claimed that the money was not released despite, “proper submission of accounts with utilisation certificates by the State government for funds received earlier under the MGNREGA”.