New Delhi, Mar 11, 2025, IANS

New Delhi, March 11 (IANS) The Lok Sabha on Tuesday witnessed a heated exchange of words between the treasury and opposition benches, over the disbursal of funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal. The chaos and sloganeering, which broke out after Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee's pointed charge at the Centre, saw the two sides trading blows at each other. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal stood up to raise a strong objection to his remarks while Speaker Om Birla also advised the Trinamool Congress lawmaker to exercise restraint in the House. The trigger for the charged atmosphere was Kalyan Banerjee's statement – 'who made you a minister'. The Trinamool Congress MP was questioning the Centre on why Bengal was "deprived" of MGNREGA benefits for three years and made these remarks, apparently bristling over the "provocative gesture" from the ruling benches. The tempers saw further flare-up as the Trinamool Congress MP pinpointed at Union Minister Giriraj Singh and questioned his "conduct" in the House. This led to strong protests and condemnation from the treasury benches. Speaking in Lok Sabha during the Question Hour, Kalyan Banerjee accused the Centre of discriminating against the people of West Bengal and urged the government to provide the funds as soon as possible. "Why Bengal has been denied the benefits of MGNREGA funds. Why is the state being discriminated against? If there are anomalies, it should be addressed. Denying benefits for three years is unacceptable," he said. "If there are certain irregularities or forged cases, who has stopped you from taking action, who has stopped you from initiating criminal proceedings against them? For 25 lakh cases, you can't stall the benefits to 10 crore people of Bengal," Trinamool Congress MP further stated. Addressing Trinamool Congress' grievances over MGNREGA funds, the MoS Rural Development Kamlesh Paswan explained that the Central teams were abused and harassed multiple times in Bengal, and the state government refused to offer any support in its investigation. "You have been raising the same issue for the past six months," he said, taking potshots at the Trinamool Congress lawmaker. The MoS also stated that the Central scheme was being "misappropriated", broken into small segments and then re-branded as its own by the Mamata government in the state.