Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday faced a protest in Jalpaiguri district over unpaid wages under the MGNREGA scheme.

Purported workers of the 100-day job guarantee scheme, demanding the release of wages, waved job cards at the convoy of Adhikari, the BJP MLA from Nandigram, on a highway in Malbazar area when he was on his way to attend a public meeting in Chalsa.

The protesters alleged they were denied wages under the scheme and demanded the immediate release of funds by the Centre. The agitators, several of them women, also raised slogans against the BJP.

Later, while addressing tea garden workers at the meeting, Adhikari alleged that the protesters who waved the job cards belonged to the TMC.

"The Centre is ready to give the money for the scheme but it will be released when the thieves go to jail," the LoP said, while lashing out at the TMC government in the state.

Adhikari said ministers and MLAs of the ruling dispensation were in the custody of law enforcement agencies in connection with corruption cases relating to various issues, including alleged school jobs and ration distribution scams.

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