New Delhi: Reiterating his challenge at Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre on Sunday, Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee said the party leaders will take part in a meeting to chalk out a strategy a day ahead of their protest in Delhi. Speaking to the media after landing in the national capital, the TMC general secretary said, “The MPs and the ministers are meeting here tonight. There will be discussions and deliberations and we will explore the way forward. Stop me if you can. I am not challenging any probe agency, whatever I had to say I have said. I am putting that challenge right across from the soil of Delhi.”
Banerjee reached Delhi to join a protest by the 100-day job card holders under MGNREGA to demand payment of the monetary dues for the work done. The TMC leader asserted that the protest for the "rightful dues" of the people of West Bengal will continue till the funds are released by the central government.
“If anyone is found guilty of corruption in a 100-day work or housing scheme, let action be taken against them, but why is money to the beneficiaries stopped? The agitation will continue till the rightful dues of the people of Bengal are released by the Centre,” news agency PTI quoted Banerjee as saying.
Earlier on Saturday, the TMC leader lashed out at the Centre over “cancellation” of trains and said such tactics won’t be able to deter the party from carrying out its political programmes.
"Refusal to allot a special train, cancellation of flight, denial of permission for holding the protest meeting in Delhi, all indicate their attempt to stop the voice of the state's people," PTI quoted Banerjee as saying.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Smriti Irani, taking a potshot at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, said the TMC supremo ensured that there was a hike in the salaries of her party MLAs but she “failed to provide the tea garden workers their hard-earned money”.
According to reports, TMC will hold a peaceful sit-in at Delhi’s Rajghat on October 2 and a peaceful rally of the MGNREGA job card holders the next day.