New Delhi: Ahead of the upcoming panchayat polls in the state, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee kicked off a two-day sit-in dharna (demonstration) in Kolkata today against the Centre’s alleged discrimination in the allotment of funds to her state.
A video shared by the news agency ANI showed West Bengal CM staging a sit-in protest for two days against the BJP-led Union government’s discriminatory behaviour towards Bengal.
The demonstration is being held in front of BR Ambedkar’s statue on Red Road in central Kolkata and will continue till Thursday evening.
According to PTI, Banerjee, accompanied by senior party leaders Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Subrata Bakshi and Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, reached the venue around noon and started her protest against the Centre's alleged stoppage of funds to the state for MGNREGA and other schemes of the housing and road departments.
"The Centre has stopped releasing funds for MGNREGA and Indira Awas Yojana (Grameen). Besides, it has also stopped scholarships for OBC students," she said on Tuesday while launching a project to construct 12,000 km of rural roads, reported news agency PTI.
Hitting out at the central government, she alleged that the Centre has not released over Rs 7,000 crores pending under MGNREGA despite West Bengal topping the list of states in completing the work under the initiative.
Previously, she had also alleged that West Bengal has not received its due from the Centre and even in this year's budget, there was nothing for the eastern state.