West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra Refutes Not Sharing Migrant Data With Centre Charge

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The West Bengal government has reacted strongly to the charge made by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for not sharing migrant workers date with the Centre. Senior TM C leader and state finance Minister Amit Mitra said the government had sent the required information the day it was sought.

He also termed as “absolutely untrue” the Union finance minister’s assertion that the Centre had provided the state with Rs 10,000 crore to fight coronavirus, saying “West Bengal did not receive a single paisa”.

Addressing a virtual rally for the people of West Bengal , the Union finance minister had said the state could not be made a beneficiary of the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan (GKRA) as it had not provided any data on migrant labourers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on June 20 launched the GKRA to provide livelihood opportunities in areas/villages witnessing a large number of returnee migrant workers.

“It is very unfortunate that the Union finance minister is not speaking the truth. It could be either that she was misinformed or that she was not aware,” Mitra, the state finance minister, said at a virtual news conference.

He said the state government had received two letters from the Centre seeking district and block-level data on migrant workers of West Bengal.

“We had given our responses on the day of receiving the letters and mentioned that there are 20 districts in West Bengal where migrant workers are located. However, we find that the central scheme did not include a single district of the state in the list of beneficiaries,” Mitra said.