Even as the Trinamool Congress MPs clashed with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament over the Centre’s refusal to release funds under the PM Awas Yojana and MGNREGA, the Mamata Banerjee Government has quietly started disbursing housing funds to voters in Bengal. The State started transferring funds to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts on Tuesday and officials said it could take about a week to send the amounts to all the 12 lakh families identified as eligible.
Sources said the ruling establishment in Bengal was all set to use the disbursal as a weapon to counter the BJP ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
“If the State gives homes to 28 lakh poor rural people, the BJP will face questions about why the Centre deprived the needy in Bengal,” said a senior State government official.
Yesterday, the Lok Sabha witnessed a brief confrontation between Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay over the withholding of funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
“As long as you will do this (withhold Central funds), your purpose to establish your party’s influence in the State will never happen,” Bandyopadhyay said.
In response, Sitharaman said that the funds were being redirected to party workers instead of reaching the intended beneficiaries, adding that misappropriation had been confirmed during an investigation. “We are allowing you to fix it and yet you are resorting to political rhetoric.”
The Central Government has also stopped releasing funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to West Bengal after it found large-scale irregularities in executing the flagship programme by the State. The release of funds to West Bengal was stopped under Section 27 of the Act over non-compliance of directives.
by the Central Government. Rs 6,913 crore is due under MGNREGA since FY 2021-22, according to the West Bengal Government.
“Through a detailed house-to-house survey, we have found that there are 28 lakh families who are eligible to get funds under the rural housing scheme. As the Centre did not release funds under the scheme over the past three years, we are releasing the first instalment under the scheme to 12 lakh people this time. In two phases, in June and December next year, we will give funds to the remaining 16 lakh people,” said the Chief Minister while inaugurating the disbursal of funds by handing over allotment letters to 42 beneficiaries at Nabanna Sabhaghar.
The beneficiaries of the Banglar Bari rural housing scheme will get Rs 1.20 lakh each to construct concrete houses. In the first instalment, each beneficiary will get Rs 60,000. After the beneficiaries spend the first tranche, the State Government will release the remaining amount as the second instalment.
Mamata Banerjee said: “We will have to spend about ₹14,773 crore for 12 lakh people to build houses…. If the Centre does not release funds under the scheme, we will give cash to the remaining 16 lakh beneficiaries before 2026.”
The Chief Minister said eight lakh beneficiaries would be given funds in May-June next year and another eight lakh beneficiaries by December 2025.
She said her Government had carefully examined the list of beneficiaries through door-to-door surveys carried out by 27,000 teams.
“The names of 40 lakh beneficiaries were on the list in 2022. We conducted surveys again and found that there are 28 lakh actual beneficiaries. All of them will get homes by the end of next year,” she said.
The Chief Minister also made it clear that she would harp on the Centre’s decision to stop the release of funds under rural development schemes, including one for building homes.
“We are supposed to get Rs 24,000 crore from the Centre under the rural housing scheme. But we did not get anything in the past three years as they alleged misappropriation of funds. A total of 69 teams visited the state to inquire about the issue and we have replied to all the questions they raised. But still, they did not release funds,” she said.
Mamata said the State was yet to get Rs 1.77 lakh crore from the Centre under various development schemes.
“We did not get funds under the scheme to build rural roads or the 100-day job scheme. We have constructed rural roads on our own and given jobs to job card holders using the State exchequer. We keep our promises,” said Mamata. Addressing Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the CM said: “We do not want alms.”
On the day Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched the disbursal of funds for Awas Yojana beneficiaries, her party, the Trinamool Congress, took to social media to showcase stories of how the State Government’s initiative is transforming lives across Bengal while also accusing the Centre of showing a step-motherly attitude. In a post on X, the Trinamool Congress shared a video of a woman, Putul Naskar, a resident of South 24-Parganas who said that the poor have complete faith in the Mamata Banerjee Government and they will get a house. Naskar, who lives in a mud house, said: “We have seen 2-3 incidents of storms. We had to stay the night elsewhere. We do not have funds to set up a house. Therefore, we had urged for a house. We are getting benefits of the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme of the State Government. We hope that we will also get a house. Didi (Mamata Banerjee) always keeps her words.”
The Trinamool Congress also spoke about the Centre’s deprivation to the state as the former had stopped providing funds. Trinamool Congress highlighted how Mamata Banerjee’s ‘Banglar Bari’ lights up the lives of people across Bengal. In the latest video posted by the party, Naskar shared how her daily life has been severely impacted due to the Centre’s withholding of housing scheme funds. The ‘Banglar Bari’ video series began on December 11 with the first set of videos shared across Trinamool’s digital platforms.
