Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced that her government would release funds to construct dwelling units for 11.38 lakh beneficiaries of the rural housing scheme if the Centre failed to release the required amounts by April 1.

“If the Union government does not release funds by April 1, we (the Bengal government) will construct 11 lakh houses for the beneficiaries enlisted under the rural housing scheme. We have already set up 47 lakh such homes earlier,” the chief minister said at a programme to distribute benefits of several schemes in Purulia on Tuesday.

She also said besides the 11 lakh homes proposed to be built under the rural housing scheme, more houses would be set up by the state government for the people belonging to backward classes and minority communities.

“Apart from the 11 lakh dwelling units, another five to six lakh homes will be constructed for the backward and minority people. These homes will also be constructed by us in phases. We will not beg for money. Bengal is not a beggar,” Mamata said during the programme at Shimulia football ground in Purulia.

She said some people also applied for homes through sorasori mukhyamantri, an interface launched by her to allow common citizens to contact the chief minister in the fastest possible way, and asked officials to verify the applications.

“Some people applied for homes through sorasori mukhyamantri. I will request to verify those. We will also do it,” she said.

The chief minister also said she would start disbursing due wages under the 100-day job scheme to nearly 50 lakh beneficiaries by the next couple of days. “Initially, we had found that the number of beneficiaries was 21 lakh from the Centre’s portal but we have now estimated the number of deprived workers is about 50 lakh. We will clear the due wages to all those who have worked under the 100-day job guarantee scheme within a day or two,” said Mamata.

Sources in the state administration said that the panchayat department had identified a total of 58,87,260 job card holders who were deprived of wages since December 2021 even after working under the scheme.

“A total of Rs 2,651 crore would be spent to clear the dues of the workers. Each of the workers would get a sum of Rs 4,502 crore,” said a source.