Women and child development minister Shashi Panja criticised the BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari for meeting leaders in Delhi, including the home minister and finance minister but without disclosing the details just said, ‘Bengal would see the outcome soon’.

Addressing a press meet today, she also mentioned about the ED searches at different districts. “It has been conducting search operations related to MGNREGA and fake job cards. Just understand the chronology. Yesterday, Mr Adhikari met various leaders in Delhi and then the raids. This clearly proves, yet again, that the BJP gives directives to ED for political bidding,” she said.

Shashi Panja, who is also Trinamul national spokesperson, said, “Our MP had submitted a question in Parliament, to which Union MoS Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti said there were over 10.5 lakh fake job cards, out of which Madhya Pradesh (1.23 lakh) and Uttar Pradesh (3.65 lakh) but Bengal’s figures stood at 5,000. The BJP-ruled MP and UP have seen exponentially more job card deletions compared to West Bengal but their funds have not been blocked. Only Bengal has been deprived of its rights, which proves political vendetta. Bengal has demonstrated 99.7% job card verification whereas Uttar Pradesh is much lower at 82% and the same figure for Gujarat stands at 53%. Have Gujarat’s funds been blocked?”

She added that that the BJP was scared after Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that the 21 lakh MGNREGA workers will be getting this money from the state government. “The protest for our rights will continue. CM will give this money to deprived workers from the state exchequer for now but the Central government must release Bengal’s dues. This is why the protests will continue till our rightful due of Rs 7,000 crore is released, she said.”

Since the people of Bengal are not just happy but are also thanking Mamata Banerjee for her help, the BJP wants to change the narrative and hence the increased activity of Central agencies, she said. Over 150 central teams visited Bengal in the past. A news report clearly stated today that the utilisation certificates were submitted. Even the chief minister wrote to the PM. If UC was not given from 2003 to 2021, how were the funds released? How come the Centre announced that Bengal was the topmost performer in MGNREGA? And now the top performer’s funds have been blocked. None of their claims are matching. It shows that this is being done to deprive the people of Bengal for political reasons.

Finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said, “There is no question of any discussion regarding the CAG in the Assembly. How come they gave the money till 2021 despite not getting the UC? This is just fake propaganda and the BJP will do a drama regarding this in the Assembly. Why wasn’t this issue raised after 2014 or 2019? It has been raised now only because the BJP was defeated in the 2021 Assembly election. While one-third of the MGNREGA workers are women and have not been paid their rightful dues in Bengal, PM Narendra Modi is talking about nari shakti in Parliament.”