Kolkata: Triggering a political slugfest, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra has once again dubbed BJP leader and Union Minister—Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti—a ‘liar’ and said the party will continue its protest, even as its general secretary Abhishek Banerjee announced an indefinite sit-in on Thursday. The TMC has been protesting the alleged withholding of West Bengal’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) dues by the Centre.
“This is going to continue till we get our dues. We started it in Delhi and we are continuing it in Bengal. We are waiting for the governor to come back. So we will wait. We are very patient. Once he finishes his helicopter tour of north Bengal and Delhi, we hope he will have time to come to the state and listen to rice producers of lakhs and crores of people who have been denied their daily wages,” Mahua Moitra told news agency ANI on Thursday.
“Sadhvi Niranjan is a liar and I already said it on record. She gave us an appointment. It was not possible for us to enter the Krishi Bhavan without an appointment. There were 40 of us. We waited, but she refused to meet. She refused to meet the victims’ families. She called them janata (public). I want to ask her a question if janata didn’t vote for you, how are you sitting there? She is one of the biggest BJP liars I have ever seen,” she added.
#WATCH | Kolkata, West Bengal | On TMC’s protest against the Central Government alleging lack of allocation of funds for MGNREGA & other social security schemes for West Bengal, TMC MP Mahua Moitra says, “This is going to continue till we get our dues. We started it in Delhi and… pic.twitter.com/gpx6CwnPzs
— ANI (@ANI) October 5, 2023
Earlier, Moitra has alleged that Union minister made Trinamool MPs “wait for 3 hours and then ran away through back door” to avoid meeting the delegation who had come from West Bengal to discuss the MGNREGA funds issue.
“Sorry @SadhviNiranjan you are lying and so (and I am being polite). You gave our delegation an appointment. You vetted all names, checked each one off before allowing us to enter, made us wait for 3 hours & then ran away via the back door ,” the TMC firebrand wrote on X (formally Twitter).
The development came as the TMC delegation headed by party Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday went on to meet Jyoti. The TMC leaders staged a protest at Rajghat on Monday demanding the release of MGNREGA funds.
No constraint of funds for MGNREGA, says Centre
The Union Rural Development Ministry on Thursday said there was no constraint of funds for the rural job scheme MGNREGA and reiterated that funds for West Bengal were not released due to non-compliance of central directives.
In a statement, the ministry said, “Funds of State of West Bengal have been stopped from March 9, 2022 as per provision of Section 27 of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 due to non-compliance of directives of Central Government.”
The statement came on a day West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress conducted a march to the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata to protest against the Centre over MGNREGA dues.
