Kolkata, July 4 (PTI) Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee Tuesday blamed BJP MPs of West Bengal of never taking up the state's issues with the higher-ups at the Centre and accused the Narendra Modi government of stopping all central funds to it.

None of the BJP MPs, including party vice-president Dilip Ghosh ever took up the issue of non-release of MGNREGS fund to Bengal with the Centre since the 2021 assembly election, in which TMC had emerged victorious, Banerjee said at a rally at Kesiari in Paschim Medinipur district ahead of the July 8 panchayat poll in the state.

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"Dilip Ghosh is the MP from here (Paschim Medinipur). May I ask what he did in these four years? The Modi government has stopped the funds for 100 days' work and squeezed PM Awas Yojana money. Has Dilip Ghosh, who is the former BJP state president, raised the issue? No BJP MP has ever taken up the cause of the poor," Banerjee said.

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The "vindictive" action of the Centre of withholding Rs 7500 crore to the state has affected the livelihood of 17.82 lakh poor families which solely depend on 100 days' work, he said.

The Centre has also stopped funds for the PM Awas Yojana fund for two years, depriving the state of its dues of Rs 8,000 crore, Banerjee said.

"The state is yet to get its Rs 1.5 lakh crore due from the Centre for several schemes," he said.

A sit-in will be organised in Delhi in a month's time in which around 10 lakh people from Bengal will participate to lodge their protest against the Centre for not releasing funds for the implementation of central schemes, Banerjee said.

Ghosh, busy on the campaign trail for the July 8 rural poll in Bengal, could not be contacted for his reaction.

Cautioning disgruntled TMC leaders and party workers whose candidates were not given tickets for the panchayat election, Banerjee said, the selection was on the basis of consensus decision. "If the decision is not liked by some, it can't be helped. We want candidates who are popular amBesides,ong people and who will deliver."

Besides, there will be review of the working of the panchayats every three months. "Those who will fail to give service will be removed," he asserted.

Trashing allegations by BJP about opposition parties not being allowed to file nominations, Banerjee said of the 2,32 lakh nominations filed for three-tier panchayat polls in the state 80,000-82000 were filed by TMC, which meant about 1.5 lakh nominations were filed by them.

At another public meeting in Chakda in Nadia district, Leader of Opposition and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said several central social welfare projects are not being allowed to be implemented in West Bengal by the TMC government.

"People are not getting quality food grains in PDS as TMC leaders are siphoning off rice from it to the open market and are replacing it with poor quality," he alleged.

He claimed that the TMC government has failed to give employment to 45 lakh labourers, who have been forced to migrate to other states.

"The BJP-run panchayats will be the precursor of Ram Rajya and susashan (good governance) when the party helms Bengal," he said.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha poll BJP will double its tally from 18 to 36 seats in Bengal, Adhikari claimed.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)