‘Not Interim But Antim Budget’: Mamata Slams Centre At Dharna Over ‘Dues’ For Bengal Welfare Schemes

New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday staged a dharna in Kolkata’s Maidan in protest against the Centre allegedly withholding the state’s dues for the various welfare schemes. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo staged the protest with the other leaders of the party and the demonstration started in front of BR Ambedkar’s statue in Maidan area.

A makeshift tent has also been set up for her to attend urgent administrative needs. The tent was put up next to the podium from where she will address the gathering.

Taking potshots at the Centre, Mamata Banerjee dubbed the interim budget as the “antim (final)” budget of the BJP government.

With the Lok Sabha elections just a few months away, the issue of Centre withholding the state’s “pending” funds, especially under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), has snowballed in West Bengal.

CM Banerjee also said that her government has submitted the utilisation certificates over the central funds used since 2011, news agency PTI reported.

Notably, Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress was voted to power in 2011, ending a 34-year Left regime in West Bengal.

“Why should we take responsibility for what happened before we came to power, during the Left rule,” PTI quoted the TMC supremo as saying.

She also said that she will be going to Delhi on February 5 to attend the meeting on ‘One nation, one election’ on February 6, ANI reported. 

It is to be noted that Friday’s protest was in line with similar demonstrations led by Mamata and TMC’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee earlier last year. Abhishek Banerjee, along with other TMC leaders, had also staged a protest in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar last year.

The West Bengal Chief Minister also staged a two-day sit-in protest last March. It was followed by Abhishek Banerjee’s protest outside the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata.