Mamata Banerjee on Thursday pulled up the Narendra Modi government for depriving the people of Bengal of funds under several central schemes, including the 100-day rural employment guarantee plan.

“The Centre did not release funds under so many schemes.... The Centre did not give us funds under the 100- day job scheme even though we are supposed to get a sum of Rs 7,000 crore which has been spent under the scheme,” said the chief minister during a programme at Howrah’s Panchla on Thursday.

Sources in the state government said the chief minister raised the issue as the ongoing financial year is going to conclude within a few weeks but the funds — due under the scheme as people worked on various projects in the 2021- 22 financial year — haven’t flowed from Delhi. As a result, lakhs of job card holders are yet to get their wages for work they did a year ago.

“The chief minister had repeatedly written letters to the Prime Minister urging him to clear a sum of Rs 7,000 crore under the 100-day job scheme which included Rs 3,000 crore meant for paying labourers’ wages,” said a bureaucrat.

Sources said Mamata made it clear that she would now mount pressure on the Centre over the due wage issue as common villagers were suffering since they did not get wages over the past year because of the Centre’s decision to hold back the funds alleging irregularities.

The Centre stopped releasing funds under the scheme in April last year alleging misappropriation of funds. The state government did not get funds for additional mandays generated in 2021-22 financial year and no funds were released in the 2022-23 financial year under the scheme.

The chief minister also said the Centre has stopped the release of funds under the rural housing and rural roads schemes also.

“.... The Centre should release funds for poor people immediately,” said the chief minister.