A team of Trinamool Congress MPs headed by Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday visited Krishi Bhavan in Delhi with the aim to meet Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department Giriraj Singh. They were unsuccessful, but the lawmakers spoke to Joint Secretary Amit Katariya, who looks after the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Then they had a meeting with Secretary, Rural Development, Shailesh Kumar Singh.
The lawmakers were demanding the release of dues under central government schemes including MGNREGA for West Bengal where TMC is in power.
Two days earlier, Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien spoke to Giriraj Singh, expressing interest to have a meeting with the minister. According to Abhishek, Giriraj told Derek that if he would be in Delhi, he would meet the TMC MPs.
However, when the TMC delegation reached Krishi Bhavan on Wednesday, the union minister was not there. The ministers of state too were not present.
There was a kerfuffle as Abhishek Banerjee entered Krishi Bhavan with the other MPs and told officials, “The minister said two days ago that he would meet, but he is not here. 25 MPs have come, so one senior person has to meet us.”
When the senior officials met the TMC leaders, Abhishek said, “We have waited for months. You are not giving the common man’s money. How long will we wait? If things do not fall into place, we will have to think of other ways.”
Party insiders say that last week TMC chairperson and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee sat on a dharna demanding “dues” from the Centre. At the time, she had asked for this campaign to be taken to Delhi. The TMC delegation’s Krishi Bhavan visit came after this. The party’s efforts are expected to intensify ahead of the upcoming panchayat polls in West Bengal and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP has been calling this a “drama”.
Abhishek also stressed that the ministry officials have stated that they are ready to give the money, but he maintained that West Bengal BJP leaders were creating hurdles. He stated that he has asked officials to go ahead with CBI inquiries into any alleged irregularities but release the common people’s money.
Read all the Latest India News here
Comments
0 comment