Centre, Bengal officials discuss NREGS dues, road & telecom infra projects

The meeting was attended by the officials of over half-a-dozen central ministries including rural development, health and family welfare, road transport and highways, coal, and telecom.

The officials from the Prime Minister’s Office were also present during the meeting.

West Bengal Finance Secretary Manoj Pant represented the state government. However, no official statement has been issued about the meeting till this story went to press.

According to a source in the Bengal government, dues to the tune of about Rs 18,000 crore are pending under three rural development schemes— the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MG-NRGES), Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Gramin), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). In addition, dues of Rs 7,000 crore are pending under the schemes, which come under the Union Food and Public Distribution Ministry, the source said.

The January 23 meeting came days after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 20 in Delhi to discuss the issue.

After the meeting, Banerjee had said that Modi assured her of holding a joint meeting of government officials to look into the state’s demands.

Earlier this month, Banerjee had announced that her government would be transferring wages to the bank accounts of 21 lakh MGNREGA workers in the state by February 21.

In October last year, Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh had said that the Centre will release funds to West Bengal under MG-NREGS and PMAY-G on as it was “satisfied” about “transparency” in the state.

The Centre had invoked Section 27 of the MNREG Act, 2005, and allegedly stopped the release of funds to the state in March 2022. It had also stopped funds to Bengal under the PMAY-G scheme.