“Everywhere, they are saying that the Centre didn’t pay to (MGNREGA) job cardholders. They made 25 lakh fake job cards. Baap ka paisa hai kya? Taxpayer ka paisa hai. Main kaise dun? (Is it the father’s money? It is the money of taxpayers. How can I give?),” Sitharaman said at a programme organised by ‘Khola Hawa’, a cultural group linked to the BJP.
Sitharaman made the remarks as the West Bengal government has started paying 21 lakh MGNREGA workers their pending wages. According to the state government, Rs 6,900 crore is due to the state under MGNREGA, a rural job guarantee scheme funded by the Centre and the states. The BJP government at the Centre has said that funds under the MGNREGS to West Bengal have been stopped since March 9, 2022, due to “large-scale corruption and violation of guidelines”.
“Taxpayers of West Bengal are being repeatedly cheated. First, the money was given to fake job cardholders. There was a chance to recover the money, but instead of it Didi (Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) is now paying it from her treasury, which is again the taxpayers’ money. This is double cheating,” added Sitharaman.
“They could have recovered the money paid to fake job cardholders, but how will they when it was given to their people,” the BJP leader alleged.
Speaking about the ongoing probe by Central agencies — the CBI and ED — into alleged irregularities in the implementation of Central schemes in the state, the Union minister said: “Their industrial minister Partha Chatterjee has been arrested. Their forest minister has been arrested in the ration scam. The numbers say that West Bengal over-reported 116 million midday meals… 116 million midday meals must be worth 100 crore. It is another scam.”
“West Bengal was second to Kerala in literacy. In today’s population, people above 80 plus are the once benefitted from the kind of education West Bengal offered when it was prospering. Now, it has fallen behind Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu when it comes to education for 10-14-year-olds. Since 2010, 1.1 million people have migrated out of West Bengal, including high-skilled labourers. They all have migrated,” she said.
She also accused the state government of “depriving” the people of the state “benefits” of Central schemes. “Why do you deny something that’s coming to benefit the people of Bengal? If you want to give more, add to it but why are you denying Ayushman Bharat and other schemes? Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated five new AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences), one of which is in Kalyani, West Bengal. It is evident that politics did not stop Modi from doing things that benefit the people of West Bengal. But you have refused to accept it, affecting the people of Bengal adversely.” Sitharaman said.
Slamming the TMC government in the state for not implementing Ayushman Bharat, a medical insurance scheme, in West Bengal, the minister said, “Patients from West Bengal go to Hyderabad, Chennai for treatment. If you were providing everything to people, and your schemes were so good and popular, then why are they going out? Neither are you providing the benefits nor are you availing the benefits that the Centre is providing… I want to question who is not allowing this development to happen in the east?”
Saying that West Bengal is a “blessed land” and could use it to its advantage like Kerala, the BJP leader said: “My heart sinks with grief when I see growth-related data of West Bengal. West Bengal stood out in culture, music, intelligence, industries. But now tell me one parameter on which West Bengal stands out — it’s tolabazi (extortion of all sorts)”.
“There are factors that are driving the industry out of West Bengal such as power shortage, absolutely poor law and order situation, uncontrolled trade unionism, no ease of doing business. The “cut money’ is being taken as a sovereign right. People are asking for help, but there is not one police officer who has the spine to go and say you will not do this in the state. I won’t blame the police, after all, they are party cadres. Some good policemen cannot individually do the good work,” the BJP leader said.
Senior BJP leader and Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday accused the Mamata Banerjee government of protecting TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh and his aides, who have been accused of land grab and sexual harassment of women in Sandeshkhali. “My body shakes if I have to talk about Sandeshkhali. Not arresting the culprit till today. I saw how they raised questions after questions on Manipur in Parliament. I want to ask the TMC government what are they doing about Sandeshkhali? I heard they have now said that Shahjahan Sheikh will be arrested in a week. That means you know where he (Sheikh) is?”
On Monday, following the High Court’s clarification that there was no stay on the arrest of Sheikh, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh had said that West Bengal Police would arrest him within seven days. Sheikh has been absconding since January 5 when a team of ED officials was attacked by a mob when they reached Sheikh’s home in Sandeskhali in connection with its probe into alleged irregularities in the public distribution scheme in the state. ENS