The Centre has asked the Bengal government to send its officials to Delhi to hold a meeting on Tuesday on funds pending under various development projects, including the 100-day job scheme.

“It was decided that both the Union government and the Bengal administration would set up teams to hold discussions on the dues under several central schemes after chief minister Mamata Banerjee had held a meeting with the Prime Minister in Delhi on December 19. A meeting is scheduled to be held on Tuesday. The Centre has asked the state to send its officials to the meeting,” said a senior state government official.

According to sources, officials in the prime minister’s office and the Union ministry of rural development will hold the meeting with the state government officials.

“The Bengal government has already set up a task force to represent the state in the meeting. The task force is comprised of officials of panchayat, finance, health and education departments. The officials of the panchayat department reached Delhi on Monday and the remaining task force members will arrive there by Tuesday morning,” said a source.

Sources said the state government had laid stress on releasing the funds under rural schemes for 100 days of jobs, housing and roads immediately.

“The Centre had stopped the release of funds under the schemes alleging irregularities. But we have already sent action-taken reports on the issues flagged by central teams which had visited the state. We are hopeful that the Centre will realise that the state has taken enough steps to prevent irregularities in future and also expect that funds would be released soon,” said an official.

The state is expecting that it could get a sum of about Rs 18,000 crore under various schemes soon if the meeting is successful.

Trinamul had held a series of agitations to protest the halt in the release of the funds.