NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha witnessed uproar and adjournment of the House for 20 minutes on Tuesday morning during Question Hour as MGNREGA dues to West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and other states were being discussed. This was followed by protests outside the House by opposition TMC, Congress and others, before the House reopened at 12 noon.
In fact, Trinamool Congress members are planning to move a breach of privilege motion against rural development minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan alleging that he “misled” the House on dues to West Bengal, when TMC MP Bapi Haldar raised the issue with the minister in the House.
Haldar’s written question to the minister on Tuesday, also on MNREGA dues to states, got him a written reply saying no funds or zero funds were released to West Bengal in the last three years – 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25. In the written reply by Chouhan, it is mentioned that “release of funds to the state of West Bengal has been stopped since March 9, 2022, under Section 27 of the Act due to non-compliance with Central government directives.”
However, while replying to Haldar in the House the minister “misled” the House claimed TMC members, by stating that Rs 7000 crores had been disbursed for Bengal, when Haldar had asked about payments for the last three years and Rs 7507.80 crore had last been paid for in 2020-21.
To that, Haldar demanded that the minister provide papers to show that the Centre gave Rs 7000 crore to Bengal. Ruckus broke out as DMK, TMC, Congress, SP were among those who rushed to the Well, after which the House was adjourned for 20 minutes. TMC MPs were the first ones to march out to the Makar Dwar and stage a protest, followed by Congress led by leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who congratulated Haldar for his counter to the government.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi had also raised the issue dues to MNREGA workers in Rajya Sabha last week.
Dissatisfied with minister of state for rural development, Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani’s response related to clearing of MGNREGA dues for Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal, entered the well of the House.
Pemmasani informed the House that Tamil Nadu has been given more funds than Uttar Pradesh under MGNREGA in one fiscal although its population is seven crore as against the northern state’s 20 crore, inviting the strong protests from DMK MPs. He said the Centre has never discriminated against any state in the release of funds under MGNREGA that guarantees 100 days of employment to eligible rural households.
Pemmasani said that there were several instances of alleged misappropriation of funds provided to West Bengal under MGNREGA. Replying to Haldar’s questions, adding that “multiple things went wrong” in the state. First, there were “misappropriation” of funds and there were instances when works were split and given to contractors on a nominated basis, he said.
When DMK MP Kanimozhi said that Tamil Nadu had been waiting the release of Rs 4,034 crore under MGNREGA for the past five months, the minister said the scheme is demand-driven, and if payments are delayed by over 15 days, they must be paid with interest to workers.
Chouhan also defended the government, saying, “Be it Tamil Nadu or West Bengal, the Modi government has never discriminated against any state… Under UPA, from 2006-07 to 2013-14, only Rs 111 crore was allocated for person-days in West Bengal, while under the NDA, we have created 239 crore person-days and allocated Rs 54,515 crore,” he said.
