Days after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss pending dues for the state, TMC leader Derek O'Brien on Thursday said he hopes that a meeting between officials from state and Centre will take place soon and the issue will be resolved.

"The PM had assured that there will be a meeting of officials of the state and Centre on the issue of long pending funds. We hope this takes place in January and the dues for Bengal under MNREGA and other schemes are immediately cleared," O'Brien said on Thursday.

According to West Bengal government's figures, the Centre owes the state Rs 9,330 Crore under the PMAY, Rs 6,900 Crore under MGNREGA, Rs 830 crore under National Health Mission, Rs 770 crore under PM Gram Sadak Yojna, Rs 350 crore under the Swachh Bharat Mission, Rs 175 crore for the Mid Day Meals, as well as money under other schemes.

Total dues, including GST compensation, devolution, performance grant and others, is over Rs 1 lakh crore, according to the state government.

Banerjee had met Prime Minister Modi on December 20, and discussed the issue of pending central funds. After the meeting, she said PM Modi proposed that officials from state and Centre can sit together and clear the issues.

In an interview to PTI on Tuesday, Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh had said that the state officials were yet to reach out to the central government officials.

"Our officials are ready, their officials will come and we will talk. Their officials have not reached us yet, they are not interested in this, they just wanted to politicise it," Singh had said in reply to a question on the proposed meeting.

On Gandhi Jayanti on October 2, TMC MPs including general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, as well as MGNREGA workers from the state, had staged a protest at the Rajghat in Delhi raising the matter of money they claimed is owed to the state.

On October 3, they staged a protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar, after which a delegation of party MPs and some workers went to meet Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti in her Krishi Bhavan office, from where they were later forcibly evicted and detained.

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