Kolkata, June 3 (IANS) BJP’s Information Technology Cell chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, on Tuesday, issued a statement seeking to clarify that the Centre was forced to stop the release of fresh funds under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) scheme to the Mamata government due to blatant siphoning of funds given earlier to the state.

“Mamata Banerjee’s West Bengal is slipping into helplessness and despair. Recently, she questioned why the central government has stopped allocating funds to the state under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). The answer is straightforward – those funds were being siphoned off by Trinamool leaders instead of being used for public welfare,” Malviya’s statement, which he posted on his official X handle, read.

Substantiating his claims, Malviya quoted the example of how funds under the PMGSY scheme were blatantly misused at Daspur in the West Midnapore district.

According to him, after the roads at Daspur were completely destroyed by the 2018 floods due to overflowing Kangsabati and Kansai Rivers, not a single repair work has been done there in these six years

He also claimed that repeated letters and urgent appeals from residents have fallen on deaf ears, thus forcing them to travel by boat for three to four months a year.

“For the rest of the year, they must walk through slush fields, risking life and limb. In medical emergencies, the sick are tied to bamboo poles and carried to ambulances on foot – like it’s still the 18th century. This is the grim reality of governance under Trinamool Congress,” Malviya’s statement read.

The BJP leader further argued that the example of Daspur shows that the plight of the people was not because of the lack of funds but because of misuse, corruption, and complete disregard for the common people.

“West Bengal deserves better,” Malviya’s statement read.

To recall, Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, and then the Union Home Minister on Sunday, while addressing their political rallies in Alipurduar and Kolkata respectively, launched scathing attacks against the West Bengal government and the ruling Trinamool Congress on the issue of corruption.

Both of them claimed that the common people of West Bengal were denied the basic and minimum services because of the blatant corruption in the system steered by Trinamool Congress leaders at all levels.

–IANS

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