Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday thanked C.V. Ananda Bose after the governor informed the Trinamul Congress leader that he had taken up with the Centre the party’s demand to clear the pending wages of 21 lakh MGNREGS job cardholders in Bengal.
While thanking the governor, the Trinamul national general secretary released the letter from Bose on X.
“With reference to the memorandum submitted to me on 09.10.2023 the matter is taken up with the Govt. of India,” read Bose’s letter, which was dated October 9 (Monday) and sent to Abhishek.
In a memorandum submitted to Bose, Trinamul mainly raised three questions: whether or not over 21 lakh people from Bengal who worked under the MGNREGS in 2021-22 fiscal are yet to be paid their wages; under what law of the land their wages are being withheld; and should they not, under statutory provisions of the scheme, also receive daily compensatory interest of 0.05 per cent (18.25 per cent annually) from after two weeks of non-payment wages.
Bose had reached Delhi on Monday night after a meeting with a Trinamul delegation led by Abhishek. The governor met Union home minister Amit Shah for an hour from around 11am on Tuesday.
However, sources in Trinamul suggested that Bose had begun conveying the party’s concerns through emails and phone calls on Monday.
“My heartfelt gratitude to the @BengalGovernor C V Ananda Bose, for promptly addressing the pressing issue concerning the welfare of the people of Bengal,” posted Abhishek on X.
“Specifically, his swift intervention for the rightful entitlements of over 21 lakh+ individuals of WB deprived under #MGNREGA,” he added.
The public cordiality that Abhishek has been according to Bose since their meeting on Monday evening marks a conspicuous shift, even if it’s temporary, from the bitter belligerence that has come to define interactions between Raj Bhavan and the ruling dispensation in Bengal.
Bose started his career as the governor in November last year in an atmosphere of bonhomie with the Trinamul government. At the peak of their mutual admiration, he compared chief minister Mamata Banerjee to Winston Churchill, John Milton, Vaclav Havel, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. That was a marked shift from the nadir of the Raj Bhavan-Nabanna relationship during the tenure of Bose’s predecessor, Jagdeep Dhankhar.
But Bose’s conduct did not go well with Bengal BJP leaders who tore into him publicly.
BJP sources said repeated complaints had been made before the leadership and Bose started acting differently after a Delhi trip in February.
