Kolkata, Oct 2 (IANS): At a time when Trinamool Congress under the leadership of party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee was protesting at Rajghat in New Delhi over the non-payment of central dues to West Bengal government, Leader of Opposition in state assembly Suvendu Adhikari has demanded CBI probe in the alleged gross irregularities in implementation of the 100-day job scheme in the state under MGNREGA.

Speaking to the media persons here on Monday, the Leader of the Opposition rubbished the allegations of the state’s ruling party that the Union government is deliberately holding back legitimate dues to West Bengal government.

“The Union government did not stop payment of legitimate dues. Rather it stopped misuse of funds under the central schemes in the state. In November 2022, when the work for linking of AADHAR cards with the job-cards under the MGNREGA scheme started, then the total number of job-card holders in West Bengal under this scheme was 3,88,86,457. After the AADHAR link task was completed in September this year, the number of job-card holders were reduced to 2,56,13,432. This means that over one crore of fake job-cards were cancelled in the process. It is high time that an investigation in the matter be handed over to the CBI,” Adhikari said.

He also said that the massive irregularities were done through conspiracy of the ruling party leaders in association with a section of block development officers, sub-divisional officers, district magistrates and state government contractors.

“The respective panchayat heads used to make the recommendations for the job-cards under the MGNREGA scheme. We have decided to speak to the Union ministry concerned so that a central agency probe in the matter is initiated at the earliest,” said Adhikari.

He also claimed that only governments of West Bengal and Kerala have not submitted detailed audit reports to the Union government on goods & services tax (GST) collected from these two states.