Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said it would be tough for the state government to give jobs to the rural populace under the 100-day employment scheme in the ongoing financial year even if the Centre allotted the grant in the last quarter of the current fiscal.

“If funds under any scheme come at the last moment, it is tough to utilise them. It needs time to prepare DPR (detailed project report)and float tenders before starting the work.… It is a bad practice to allot funds at the last moment and then allege that the state could not utilise the grant,” the chief minister said in Delhi while replying to a question on the probability of the Centre releasing funds under the MGNREGA within a few weeks.

The Centre had stopped releasing funds under the 100- day rural job scheme since April alleging misappropriation of the grant in Bengal.

As the state panchayat minister, Pradip Majumdar, is in touch with Union minister Giriraj Singh regularly and the panchayat department has sent an action-taken report based on the instructions sent from Delhi, there is a possibility that the Centre will release some funds under the scheme soon.

Although the possibility has raised hope in the administrative circles, sources said the chief minister made it clear that she would go on attacking the Centre for not releasing funds under the scheme for the better part of the financial year.

A bureaucrat said that if panchayat polls are held in February next year, the state would not be able to give jobs under the scheme even if funds are allotted now.

“The BJP may campaign that the state could not give jobs to the villagers even if funds were given. The chief minister is aware of the possible situation and made her stand clear that she is going to continue her attack against the centre on the issue,” said the bureaucrat.

The union rural development minister, Giriraj Singh, called state panchayat minister Majumdar on Wednesday and promised that he was trying to complete the process of releasing funds under the MGNREGA at the earliest.

“He has said that the Centre is assured after the state took several measures to implement the scheme properly. He assured me that he is trying to complete the process at the earliest. I will be assured only when funds are released,” said Majumdar.