“Don't Want Alms”: Mamata Banerjee Says Bengal Will Pay MGNREGA Workers' Dues

Kolkata:

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday announced that her government would transfer funds by February 21 to the bank accounts of 21 lakh MGNREGA workers in the state.

The Trinamool Congress chief, who started a 48-hour dharna in front of the BR Ambedkar statue in the city on Friday, demanding release of “unpaid dues” from the Centre for various social welfare schemes, also said that she would soon come out with another announcement regarding the unreleased funds for the Awas Yojana.

“We do not want to beg from the BJP nor do we want their alms. By February 21, we will transfer money to the bank accounts of 21 lakh workers who did not get the money from the central government even after working for the 100-day work scheme (MGNREGA) in the last three years. This is my first step,” Ms Banerjee announced at the dharna site.

“The central government is thinking that they will starve Bengal to death. We will not allow them to succeed in that… Have faith in me… I will try to slowly clear in step by step those funds which are still stuck,” she said.

“This fight is for the people who have been deprived. We will continue our fight and not let a single poor person be deprived in Bengal. Till I am alive, I will fight for you people,” the chief minister said.

Ms Banerjee said that her party would go “all out” for the Lok Sabha polls and claimed that if all opposition parties come together then the BJP government in the Centre would surely be toppled.

“I will play all out and win all out. If all states, all frontal organisations and all regional parties and national parties come forward, then I think the fall of the BJP is inevitable. If BJP think that they are going to stay here long then it is wrong. They have tortured the people of the country for a long period,” she said.

The Bengal chief minister reiterated that she would “never allow” the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state.

On Saturday, former Indian cricketer and politician Kirti Azad and social activist Yogendra Sharma visited Ms Banerjee at the dharna stage. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)