New Delhi, Oct 3 (PTI) Amid a slugfest between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP over the allocation of central funds to West Bengal, Union government officials on Tuesday claimed the state could draw only Rs 7,248 crore of the Rs 19,595 crore allocated to it under the Jal Jeevan Mission since 2019-20.

They claimed the pace of implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission in West Bengal was the slowest among states -- just 38.32 per cent as against the national average of more than 68 per cent.

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Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee, his party's lawmakers, state ministers and supporters protested at Jantar Mantar here on Tuesday, accusing the Centre of trying to intimidate protesters who had gathered in the national capital to press for the release of funds to West Bengal.

The Central government officials claimed the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government had not taken action against officials for including "ineligible" households in the list of beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin.

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The West Bengal government had uploaded 56.86 lakh households on the Awas+ portal and deleted the names of 17.03 lakh ineligible households at the insistence of the Union Rural Development Ministry, they said.

"Had the ministry not insisted on the reverification of Awaas+ list, Rs 20,400 crore would have been spent by the state to build houses for ineligible households," an official said.

But no action has been taken by the state government against the errant officials, he claimed.

The Central officials said the ministry received complaints from MPs and MLAs about inclusion of ineligible households in the PMAY-G initiative from 10 districts – Purba Medinipur, Paschim Medinipur, Purba Burdwan, Malda, South 24 Parganas, Alipurduar, Nadia, Murshidabad, Kalimpong and Darjeeling.

The ministry had released Rs 25,798 crore for the PMAY-G scheme since 2016-17, but did not release any fund during 2022-23 and 2023-24 due to the "non-submission of satisfactory compliance of the directives of the ministry".

On the MGNREGS, an inquiry by the central government found the West Bengal government had "fraudulently" shown existing works to have been created under the rural jobs scheme.

The inquiry also found that works not permissible under MGNREGS such as barbed wire fencing were sanctioned and large scale rivulet de-silting was taken up as flood protection measures in Purba Bardhaman and Malda districts without the NOC from the irrigation department, they said.

The inquiry also found that public funds were used to build infrastructure for a private entity – a tea estate – in Darjeeling and no action was taken against officials for sanctioning such works, they officials said.

Officials said the state government had been asked to take action against district level officials and recover money from each and every defaulters, which has not been made.

No action has been taken or recovery made in the serious nature of cases such as existing work fraudulently shown as MGNREGA work or works taken up on private property such as a tea estate, officials said.

In view of the non-compliance of the directions of the Central government in general, the Centre has decided to stop the release of funds in accordance with the provisions of Section 27 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, the government officials said.

The Trinamool Congress has been accusing the BJP-led central government of stopping funds for centrally-funded schemes in West Bengal.

(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)