Sudip Bandyopadhyay, the leader of the Trinamul Congress in the Lok Sabha, said he had approached the Prime Minister in Parliament on Wednesday and taken up with him the “non-payment of funds” by the Centre, but Narendra Modi had asked him to read the CAG report first and then, they would discuss the matter.

Bandyopadhyay was seated very close to Modi during the President’s address to Parliament on Wednesday. The Trinamul MP said he had approached the Prime Minister and reminded him that a delegation of Trinamul legislators led by Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had met Modi last month over the pending funds.

“Since I was seated very close to the PM, I reminded him that the chief minister herself and other MPs had raised with him the non-payment of dues and told him that the dues should be released,” Bandyopadhyay told journalists. “To this, the PM told me to read the CAG report and then we will talk. There was no scope (time) for more talks,” he added.

Bandyopadhyay accused the central government of depriving Bengal of its rightful dues and forcing Trinamul to launch a fresh “satya graha”. “Now, we will decide what our next step would be during the current session of Parliament,” he said.

Bandyopadhyay’s charge led to a counter-attack with state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar accusing the Bengal government of massive financial irregularities.

“The CAG report shows massive financial misappropriation in Bengal. The audit shows efforts were made by the Mamata Banerjee government to loot money everywhere. The report is a slap on the face of the Mamata government,” Majumdar told a media conference at the BJP’s headquarters here.

The Balurghat MP claimed that the CAG had found that the state government had not provided “utilisation certificate for Rs 3,400 crore appropriated from the contingency fund”.