Abhishek extends financial aid to deprived MGNREGA workers

Senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee is extending financial aid to approximately 3000 MGNREGA job card holders in the state deprived of their dues, party sources said on Monday. Abhishek Banerjee had promised during the agitation by TMC in New Delhi in early October that if in two months the Centre did not clear the dues, he will make sure that the job card holders are assisted by the party.

Senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee is extending financial aid to approximately 3000 MGNREGA job card holders in the state deprived of their dues, party sources said on Monday. Banerjee has begun sending letters to the MGNREGA workers who participated in TMC's protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi in October this year. BJP leader Dilip Ghosh dubbed the financial aid as a ''bribe'' before of 2024 Lok Sabha polls. ''Abhishek Banerjee had promised during the agitation by TMC in New Delhi in early October that if in two months the Centre did not clear the dues, he will make sure that the job card holders are assisted by the party. Since Sunday evening he has been sending out letters and providing financial assistance,'' the party stated. In the letters addressed to the affected workers, Banerjee expressed his empathy and said that a larger protest than the previous one will be launched in the coming days. ''Approximately 3000 will be sent. But we are not disclosing the remuneration,'' he added. In October, Abhishek Banerjee, along with TMC MLAs, MPs, ministers and MGNREGA workers protested at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. The protestors had claimed when they went to meet the Union Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti at Krishi Bhawan but she declined after making them wait for about an hour and a half. She also limited the delegation to five members. Following this, Banerjee organised a five-day sit-in outside Raj Bhawan in Kolkata to protest against the alleged withholding of West Bengal's MGNREGA dues by the Centre. Reacting to Banerjee’s decision to provide financial assistance to deprived job card holders, Ghosh said “The TMC now needs to use money power to bring people to its rallies and programmes. As it took several people to Delhi it now needs to pay them. This financial assistance is nothing but a bribe before the Lok Sabha polls,” Ghosh said. Articulating TMC's strategy for its ongoing agitation demanding clearance of the state's dues under MGNREGA by the Centre, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee last week announced plans to visit the national capital in mid-December.