“We Will Build 11 Lakh Houses If Centre Doesn’t…”: Mamata Banerjee

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said her government will build 11 lakh houses for the state’s poor if the Centre does not clear the “dues” of the PM Awas Yojana by April 1.

Addressing an official programme in Purulia, she attacked the BJP-led government at the Centre for holding back funds of central schemes for the state.

“We will wait till April 1 and if the Centre does not release the funds for the Awas Yojana, our government will build the 11 lakh houses for the beneficiaries. There is no need to beg the Centre. Remember we are not beggars. We are demanding our rights,” Ms Banerjee said.

She said her government will pay around 50 lakh MGNREGA workers whose “dues” are pending with the Centre.

“We are paying 50 lakh MGNREGA workers, and not 21 lakh. We took this number (21 lahks) from the Centre’s portal. But now we are seeing that it is 50 lakh. In another couple of days, the transfer (of money) will be complete. We will ask the BJP government at the Centre why they have not paid the workers their dues,” she said.

Ms Banerjee earlier announced that 21 lakh workers, who did not get the money from the Centre after working for the 100-day work scheme in the last three years, would be paid by her government.

She staged a dharna in Kolkata earlier this month, claiming that the Centre owes the state thousands of crores of rupees on account of various welfare schemes, including the MGNREGA and the PM Awas Yojana.

She led a similar demonstration last year as well over the issue. Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, who is Ms Banerjee’s nephew, held an agitation in New Delhi and sat on a dharna outside the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata over it.