MGNREGS dues: Abhishek Banerjee calls off dharna after Governor promises action
Telegraph | 10 October 2023
The five-day-long Abhishek Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress dharna before the north gate of Raj Bhavan was withdrawn on Monday evening after a party delegation, which met Governor CV Ananda Bose and submitted a memorandum, was assured of “immediate action”.
Irrespective of the Governor’s assurances, Banerjee, though, set an October 31 deadline for the BJP-led Centre to positively respond to the demand of clearing the dues of “21 lakh deprived MNREGS workers in the state” with interest. He announced a more intense agitation post-Pujas from November 1 in the eventuality of the Union government not acceding to the demand. “This time the agitation will be led by Mamata Banerjee herself,” Abhishek announced.
Bose flew to Delhi on Monday evening itself, ostensibly to discuss the demands of the state’s ruling party. Alternative sources, however, claimed that the Governor was urgently summoned by the Centre in the wake of the ongoing Trinamul protests in Calcutta.
“We asked the Governor under what law has the Centre withheld wage payments of 21.75 lakh workers for two years who have already laboured for 100 days work scheme? The Governor listened to us and admitted that our demand was legitimate. We wanted to give him two weeks' time but he told me he will take up the matter with the Centre in 24 hours,” Banerjee said.
“We have now come to know he has pro-actively taken up the matter and has already flown to Delhi. Our senior leaders in the party as well as our supremo Mamata Banerjee have advised me to show our courtesy in return for the gesture the Governor has shown,” he added in justification of the decision to withdraw the ongoing sit-in agitation.
“Our hearts are full of hope that he would be able to convince the central government and find a solution to this impasse. We will wait till October 31 till the Puja season is over for positive action from Centre. If there is no such response, we will announce our next course of action on the evening of October 31 itself and hit the streets from the very next day. This time our leader Mamata Banerjee will be at the forefront and we will not stop till our demand is met,” Abhishek announced.
Earlier in the afternoon, a 30- member delegation led by Banerjee and comprising TMC MP, ministers, MLAs and seven deprived MNREGS workers walked into Raj Bhavan for its scheduled meeting with the Governor at 4pm. Team members were seen carrying stacks of letters, purportedly written by deprived central scheme beneficiaries, which the protestors carried to Delhi but failed to handover to the Union rural development minister. The letters, TMC leaders said, were handed over to the Governor.
The delegation met Bose at Raj Bhavan at a meeting which lasted for about 20 minutes and which party leaders said was held in a “cordial and positive environment”.
In its memorandum to the Governor, signed by Banerjee and consisting the names of 29 others who comprised the delegation, the Trinamul Congress raised questions with regard to non payment of MNREGS dues. It asked whether it was true that wage payment of over 21 lakh workers of Bengal, who put in their labour for REGA projects in 2021-22, remains pending for over two years now and why the Centre was holding back their rightful entitlements despite all compliances being adhered to.
Citing Clause 29 of Schedule II of the MNREGA, the memorandum claimed that the law guarantees that beneficiaries are also entitled to payment of compensation of 0.05 per cent per day if there is a payment delay of more than 15 days from the date of closure of muster roll and hence the deprived should not only paid their fixed wages but also additional compensation on account of the delay.
The memorandum sought Bose’s immediate intervention in the matter and urged him to “urgently write to the Union government seeking clarity and answers” to the questions raised.
Previously, on Saturday and the third day of the sit-in dharna, three TMC delegates – MPs Mahua Moitra and Kalyan Banerjee and panchayat minister Pradip Majumder – had met Bose in Darjeeling when he was touring the hills to take a stock of the flood situation there and appraised him of the demands of the protestors.
Giving credit to the impact of the party’s agitation, first in Delhi on October 2-3 and, subsequently, before the Raj Bhavan in Calcutta, for the response it managed to get, Banerjee said: “It’s the people’s show of strength and resolve which forced the junior central minister Sadhvi Niranjan, who threw us out of Krishi Bhavan, to fly down to Calcutta in three day’s time and express her wish to talk. It is because of the pressure created by our people that the Governor is forced to fly to Delhi to talk to the Centre.”
"What we did in the last few days is just the trailer of what people of Bengal can do when their patience runs out. Picture toh abhi baki hai," Banerjee said in reference to the future course of action the party was planning in the days ahead.
The leader also challenged the Union rural development minister to sit for a debate with the state panchayat minister with facts and figures “to lay bare who is telling the truth and who isn’t”.