West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday along with nine Trinamool Congress MPs and said later that he assured her that a joint meeting of government officials would be held to look into their demands on releasing central funds for the state for various projects. “Prime Minister heard our demands and he assured us that he will arrange a joint meeting of central government and state government officials to find a solution,” Banerjee said at a press conference. Banerjee has accused the Centre of blocking funds to various central schemes and had even written to PM Modi on the issue. “We told the Prime Minister that for two years, we did not get 100 days’ work money. This is mandatory in our constitutional provision. The central government did not allocate even one paise in the 2023 general budget. The central government also stopped the PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana) project allocation, money for health mission allocation and money for finance commission. We said, if there is any fault, punish us, but do not punish the common people,” Banerjee said. “More than 150 (central) teams came to our state and we gave details and explanations to those teams. Previously, I met the Prime Minister three times. In these projects, both the central government and state government have a share. So, this is not very healthy to stop money,” she added. During the press meeting, Banerjee also agreed that she had proposed Mallikarjun Kharge’s name as the leader of the INDIA coalition. “I proposed Khagre ji’s name as our leader because everybody is asking who our leader will be. Arvind Kejriwal supported me,” Banerjee said. However, she denied any opposition to her proposal from Nitish Kumar. “I have no idea that Nitish Kumar is angry,” she said. Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari went to Nabanna, the headquarters of the state secretariat, with posters displaying how the Centre’s allocation for several projects has increased in the last few years. “Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee went to Delhi and said the central government has stopped money. But the reality is the state government here is stealing money of common people… lying to people,” Adhikari said.
