Mamata Banerjee on Friday said her government would launch a scheme, Khela Hobe, to give jobs to those who had cards of the 100 days’ job scheme as the Centre had frozen funds for it since January 2022.

“The Centre is not releasing funds under the 100 days’ job scheme.... We won’t depend on the Centre in future. We will launch a programme in Bengal to give jobs to the (100 days’ job) card holders. The name of the scheme will be Khela Hobe,” said the chief minister at the Martyrs’ Day rally of Trinamul on Friday.

Sources said the chief minister has focused on generating jobs for the rural populace as villagers are suffering in the absence of the 100 days’ job scheme. Rural people are registering their grievances over the lack of jobs with the government’s newly launched outreach, Sorasori Mukhyomantri.

Till Thursday, 2.9 crore people called up the number of Sorasori Mukhyomantri since its July 8 launch, sources said. Of them, 85,000 people filed grievances or sought something. Around 20 per cent of them demanded jobs, the source said.

“This indicates rural people are in distress owing to lack of jobs… The chief minister has realised this isan area where she has to do something...,” said an official.

A section of the officials said that during the rural poll campaign, Trinamul blamed the BJP-led Centre for not releasing funds under the 100 days’ job scheme, which apparently worked in its favour in the polls.

“Now, as Trinamul has won in all three tiers of the panchayats, it is its responsibility to give jobs to the rural populace. The mood of the rural people can change if the state fails to give them jobs. Trinamul can't take chances ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” said a bureaucrat.

The Centre stopped releasing funds under the MGNREGS in January 2022, citing severe financial misappropriation under the scheme between 2020 and 2021. The Centre asked the state to take steps like recovery of misappropriated funds and action against culprits.

The state sent several action-taken reports to the Centre over the past 18 months, but the Centre did not release funds.

The state government launched a scheme to provide jobs to MGNREGS job card holders last year, but it did not yield much result as the state did not have enough funds.

Sources said that implementing this new scheme too would not be easy as it would require about Rs 8,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore to provide 50 days of jobs to 1.39 crore active MGNREGS workers in Bengal.

“The state is already spending over Rs 25,000 crore to run several welfare schemes. I don’t know how funds will be arranged,” said a source.

Mamata said her government would induct more beneficiaries under welfare schemes like the old-age pension scheme.

She added: “The BJP is jealous of Bengal’s success. They are jealous of the social security net that the Bengal government gives its citizens...."

Opposition parties said the chief minister was making announcements keeping Lok Sabha polls in mind, but her government lacked funds.