Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) government will start paying 24.5 lakh MGNREGA workers and not 21 lakh workers (as announced earlier by CM) from March 1.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday in the state Legislative Assembly had said that if the Central government does not pay the beneficiaries of Awas Yojana by April, then the state government will start paying the beneficiaries from the state from May 1.
“I had assured that the funds for 21 lakh MGNREGA workers would be released by February 21 but it will take a few days. The final number of workers stands at 24.5 lakh requiring more funds. So the wages of these workers will be disbursed by the state government by March 1. In addition to this, if the Central government does not release the funds for 11 lakh Awas Yojana beneficiaries by April, we will disburse funds for the same from May 1,” said Mamata.
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari sarcastically said that the loan that was sought by the government to pay the workers has ‘not’ been sanctioned.
It can be recalled that TMC and party chief Mamata Banerjee had held several protests against the fund freeze by the Central government. TMC national secretary Abhishek Banerjee had also held protests in the national capital against the same and also wanted to meet Union Minister Niranjan Sadhvi Jyoti.
Though, the Union Minister claimed that she was waiting in her office and wanted to meet the TMC delegation, but the TMC alleged that in order to avoid TMC, the Union Minister had left her office from the backdoor.
