West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to visit New Delhi on June 9 and may meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She is likely to return on June 11.

Sources at Nabanna, the state secretariat, said that the CM’s Office has sought an appointment from the PMO for a meeting on June 10. “The chief minister wants to raise the issue of the Centre’s pending funds and dues to the West Bengal government, which has now ballooned to over Rs 2 lakh 27 thousand crore,” an official said.

The TMC government in the state has been raising the issue of pending Central funds for schemes like MGNREGA (rural job guarantee scheme) and PM Awas Yojana (housing scheme for the poor), and has even knocked the doors of the Supreme Court. The BJP government at the Centre has justified the blocking of the funds, citing alleged corruption in the implementation of the schemes in the state.

Last week, Banerjee had skipped the 10th Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog in Delhi that was chaired by the PM.

Sources close to Mamata said she decided not to attend the previous meeting because the NDA-led states were allotted more than 15 minutes to speak, while she was given only five minutes.

During her visit, Banerjee will also inaugurate her party’s new office in Delhi.

Meanwhile, Banerjee on Thursday visited SSKM Hospital in Kolkata for a follow-up of her leg injury that she had received while campaigning for the party in Nandigram during the 2021 Assembly elections.