Centre's Niranjan Jyoti and TMC in war of words over MGNREGA fund-freeze in West Bengal

The ongoing stand-off between the Centre and the West Bengal state government on the freeze on the 100-day rural jobs funds escalated on Wednesday.

Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, the union minister of state for rural development, alleged that the Trinamool delegation that had visited her was keen on holding a ‘dharna’ and didn’t care for the state’s people.

“I had understood their intent, that their parliamentarians were not there to meet — they had the intent of holding a dharna in my office — of their people, and workers. They had no worry about the people of West Bengal,” the minister said in Kolkata.

Jyoti said that after Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, nodal officers of the two governments have been appointed to look into the matter.

“Resolve those issues where discrepancies have taken place. West Bengal’s people are also our people,” she said. If the money had to be stopped, it could have happened for various central schemes, she said.

The Trinamool leadership, however, countered this narrative with one of their own.

Trinamool leader Mahua Moitra stated, “Very surprised, yet again, to see Sadhviji, who, yet again, is lying continuously about what happened, when we went to meet her in Delhi."

Moitra said that the delegation of MPs, and ministers from the state government, had gone with a prior appointment to the minister’s office. “Every one was security-checked, about five times. Every single name on the list had been ticked off by the security agencies, before we entered,” she said.

Moitra alleged that the wait to meet was for over three hours, and the minister left without meeting the delegation, refusing, despite messages sent seeking the meeting.

“We entered her office, and didn’t meet her... [it] is ridiculous, because there is no reason why a delegation would be allowed into her office if we didn't plan on meeting her,” Moitra said, claiming that it’s the minister’s “guilty conscience” that is causing her to visit Bengal, repeatedly.