TMC MLAs demonstrate over MGNREGA funds on West Bengal assembly campus

Thousands of MGNREGA job-card holders in the state are also being deprived because of the vendetta politics of the Centre, Chattopadhyay alleged.Leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP dismissed the allegations as baseless.It is the state government that has stopped providing details regarding the use of central funds, he said.In October, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, along with TMC MLAs, MPs, ministers and MGNREGA workers, protested at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

TMC MLAs began a demonstration on the West Bengal assembly campus on Tuesday, seeking immediate release of central funds for the rural job scheme MGNREGA.

The two-day demonstration by the TMC legislative party was being held in front of the BR Ambedkar statue on the assembly premises.

Led by Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, the TMC MLAs raised slogans against the BJP-led government at the Centre, accusing it of depriving the state's poor people.

''The Centre is violating Constitution, and depriving the state of its due funds. Thousands of MGNREGA job-card holders in the state are also being deprived because of the vendetta politics of the Centre,'' Chattopadhyay alleged.

Leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP dismissed the allegations as ''baseless''.

''It is the state government that has stopped providing details regarding the use of central funds,'' he said.

In October, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, along with TMC MLAs, MPs, ministers and MGNREGA workers, protested at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi. Banerjee also led a five-day sit-in outside the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata over the issue.

At present, Banerjee is providing financial aid to about 3,000 deprived MGNREGA workers in the state.

Earlier, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would visit Delhi in mid-December over the issue.