Min: KMC will clear 100-day workers’ dues in three days

Kolkata: Challenging the BJP to get Bengal’s due money for job card holders under MGNREGA scheme from the Centre, state Cabinet minister and Mayor Firhad Hakim assured that the state government will ensure that due wages of the 100-day workers of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) are disbursed in next three days.

On Saturday, during t‘Dare Centre to pay MGNREGA wages’he KMC monthly meeting, senior Opposition BJP councillor, Meena Devi Purohit drew the Mayor’s attention and said that the 100-day workers engaged by KMC are not getting their due wages for the past three months and are reeling under financial duress.

While assuring that the dues were stuck due to certain technical issues and will be disbursed in the next three days, Hakim challenged the BJP councillor to get the due wages of the 100 days workers in the state under the MGNREGA scheme from the BJP-led Central government.

Hakim, who is also the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs (UD&MA) minister, said if the 100-day workers under KMC doesn’t get paid in next three days he will resign as the mayor while asking the BJP councillor to resign if she fails to get due wages of the MGNREGA workers from the Centre within the same time.

He claimed that despite most fake job cards being found in the BJP-ruled- Uttar Pradesh, Centre selectively withheld funds for West Bengal.

“As a BJP councillor your heart is crying out for the 100-day workers under KMC not getting paid their due wages. It should be. But what about the lakhs of job card holders in the state suffering because of the Central government’s decision to withhold funds?” he questioned.

Last year, as per the decision of the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, the state government began transferring money to the bank accounts of 21 lakh people who worked for the 100 days’ scheme but did not receive payments from the central government. Further, the Panchayat and Rural development department also launched an online portal for Karmashree —a flagship scheme parallel to MGNREGA — to provide at least 50 days of work to over two crore job card holders as the Narendra Modi-led Central government froze funds for the rural employment guarantee scheme in December 2021.