Bengal’s leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Saturday wrote a five-page letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging misappropriation of central grants and funds in the state.

Its timing — a day after Mamata Banerjee met Modi seeking release of over 1 lakh crore that the Centre owes Bengal — makes it clear that the state unit of the BJP is trying to prevent Trinamul from creating a political narrative around the Centre’s deprivation of Bengal.

According to Adhikari, the misappropriation has been prevalent mostly in executing central government schemes such as the MGNREGA, PMAY (housing scheme for rural poor) and PMGSY (scheme to build rural roads).

“Everyday innumerous incidents of malpractices are being unearthed across West Bengal,” the Nandigram MLA of the BJP wrote in English to the Prime Minister. “This has become an ongoing and continuous process,” he claimed, adding that the government has spent funds under the MGNREGA schemes without actually executing any work and submitted fake utilisation certificates.

The central government has already suspended release of funds under the MGNREGA and PMAY by citing the two reasons — misappropriation of funds and change in the name of the schemes by the state government.

In the recent past, the ministry of rural development sent several teams to get reports on implementation of schemes from the ground after several BJP legislators lodged complaints on defalcation of funds. At least 10 central teams have in recent times started probing these complaints by visiting the districts of Bengal.

This probe — Adhikari writes in his letter — has “made the Panchayat Representatives and Authorities nervous”. He has also alleged that panchayat offices “are functioning at the dark hours of the night” to smuggle documents to justify the irregular expenditure.

Adhikari has dwelt elaborately on change of names of central schemes by the state government. Recently, the Union panchayati raj ministry told the state administration that funds will be frozen unless the original names of the schemes are restored.

“Only when a Central inspecting/ Audit Team has visited a certain location, the local Authorities have changed the nameplates or signboards overnight to misguide the visiting team into believing that due compliance have been adhered to,” Adhikari alleged in his letter.

He alleged other instances of swindling of funds meant for mangrove sapling plantation in South 24-Parganas and Covid-19 relief, among others.

Concluding his letter, the former minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet wrote: “The people of West Bengal are sick and tired of the siphoning of Central Government funds….”

The letter, BJP sources said, is an attempt to pre-empt Mamata’s attack on the Centre for allegedly depriving the state of its legitimate dues.

Trinamul spokesperson Tapas Roy said Adhikari didn’t want any good development for Bengal.