The Mamata Banerjee government has initiated an all-out effort to secure funds under the 100-day job scheme from the Centre ahead of next year’s panchayat polls but the recovery of misappropriated cash — a condition set by New Delhi — appears to be coming in the way of the grant’s flow from the Delhi.

Sources at Nabanna said two senior IAS officers from Bengal had recently met senior officials of the Union rural development ministry in Delhi to lobby for funds under the MGNREGA.

The move came after the state panchayat minister, Pradip Majumdar, could not get an appointment with Union rural development minister Giriraj Singh despite repeated attempts.

“This shows the state government was eager to get funds under the scheme ahead of panchayat polls. Two senior bureaucrats went to Delhi to attend a meeting and they used the platform to lobby the Centre’s officers to secure funds,” said a source.

The sources said the state government was hopeful of getting funds after the IAS duo felt that their meetings with the officials of the Union ministry was fruitful.

“The Centre might send another letter seeking some clarifications. We will send replies as soon as we get the letter. We are hopeful that we will be able to satisfy the Centre since we have initiated a series of steps to ensure proper implementation of the scheme,” said a senior bureaucrat.

A section of the officials, however, said it might not be that easy to secure funds under the scheme as the Centre had asked the state to recover misappropriated cash from those who were involved in the embezzlement of funds.

“The Centre expects that more than Rs 150 crore will be recovered from those who were involved in the misappropriation of MGNREGA funds. But the state claimed that it had recovered about Rs 2 crore so far. It seems the recovery is not good enough to satisfy the Centre,” said a source.

The sources said the state government was desperate to secure funds ahead of the rural polls as the ruling establishment realised that it could face questions over unemployment.

“More than 1.5 crore job card-holders used to earn through the 100-day employment scheme. In the absence of the scheme since April this year, the ruling party might face questions from the rural populace,” said a source.

A Trinamul Congress insider has said as a majority of panchayats are run by the ruling party, it is inevitable that they will have to face questions if funds could not be arranged ahead of the polls. He also pointed out that recovery of misappropriated funds appeared to be difficult.

“If the state wants to recover misappropriated funds, it has to recover the funds from panchayats, most of which are run by Trinamul. It remains to be seen whether the ruling party will be able to take the risk of making its leaders at the grassroots aggrieved ahead of the polls,” said a source.

Covid cases

Bengal on Monday reported 100 new Covid cases, 250 recoveries and one death. Currently, there are 1,691 active cases in the state, said the state bulletin. The state’s positive recovery rate was 98.90 per cent and mortality rate 1.02 per cent on Monday when 3,374 samples were tested.