Kolkata, Mar 23 (PTI) West Bengal Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Pulak Roy on Wednesday alleged in the assembly that the state had received no funds from the Centre for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) since December last year.
The MGNREGA was enacted to provide at least 100 days of employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult member volunteers to do unskilled manual work.
“The central government had not released funds for the 100 days work to West Bengal since December 2021, the burden which is borne by the state. The state is also not getting money under the housing scheme from the Centre,” Roy said.
Speaking during the passage of budgetary demand for the department, the minister asserted that the opposition BJP is trying to thwart progress and development of the state’s rural area by frequently writing letters to the Centre.
He, however, did not elaborate on the matter.
Panchayats had been converted to party offices during the 34 years of Left Front rule and they started functioning in a proper manner only after the Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011, Roy claimed.
Allowances of the members of gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zilla parishads have been increased during the TMC regime, he said.
During the last financial year, a total of 36,259 kilometres of road were built in the state under the Gram Sadak Yojana and 56 bridges are now under construction, Roy added.
Minister of state of the department, Becharam Manna, said more than one lakh kilometres of rural road had been built in the state since 2011.
An amount of Rs 25,170 crore had been passed for the department during 2022-23.
The house also passed a budgetary grant of Rs 3900 crore for the public health engineering department.
Earlier during the Question Hour, Roy said that the government has set a target of providing potable drinking water to entire rural Bengal by 2024.
He said the state had promoted 9.35 lakh women self-help groups (SHGs) till December 2021.
Roy criticised nationalised banks for allegedly not providing credit to the SHGs. PTI dc NN NN
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