KOLKATA: Pressing Centre to release “pending” dues of central schemes to Bengal, All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday left from Kolkata for New Delhi along with fathers of three children aged between three and five years, who were killed when part of the wall of their mud-house collapsed in Bankura on Saturday, to participate in a protest on October 2-3.
The two-day protest in the national capital is aimed at pressing for the Centre’s release of funds due to Bengal which include wages under the Centre-funded Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme and grants for constructing houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
Claiming that the families of the three children were enlisted in the list of beneficiaries for a concrete house under the Centre-funded PMAY, Abhishek alleged they were forced to live in the mudhouse as they had yet to receive the money to construct houses.
“As the Centre has stopped the release of funds under the scheme, their houses could not be constructed. The three children died after being trapped under the mud wall of their house which collapsed during rain. Who is responsible for their death? Union minister for Rural Development Giriraj Singh must answer it,” Abhishek alleged while speaking to mediapersons at Kolkata airport.
The children—Rohan Sardar(5), Ankush Sardar (3) and Nisha Sardar(4)—were killed when they were playing in the courtyard of their house. After permission for a special train to transport TMC workers to Delhi was denied by the railway authorities, over 2,000 job-card holders under the Centre’s rural employment guarantee scheme left Kolkata on Saturday to participate in the protest.
However, one of the buses met an accident at Kodarma in Jharkhand after the driver “lost control” and hit a heap of soil dumped beside the thoroughfare for the repairing of the road. Eight party supporters received minor injuries.