KOLKATA: The ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition BJP in West Bengal got engaged in a war of words on Thursday over releasing a 'white paper' on the funds sanctioned and their implementation under two Centrally-sponsored schemes -- MGNREGA and PMAY.

It all started with a post on X by Trinamool General Secretary and the party's Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee, in which he ridiculed the Union government for not accepting his challenge of releasing a “white paper” on these two schemes since 2021, the year the state went to the polls.

“It’s been nearly TWO WEEKS, clocking close to 350 HOURS, the @BJP4India continues to shy away from accepting my CHALLENGE and RELEASING WHITE PAPER on AWAS PLUS and MGNREGA since their 2021 defeat in WB. BENGAL AWAITS, SEEKING NOTHING BUT ABSOLUTE ACCOUNTABILITY!" Banerjee wrote.

Reacting to the Trinamool leader's remarks, BJP's Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya questioned whether the state government or Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has the courage to release a 'white paper' on the implementation of the above-mentioned schemes in the state.

“The entire Trinamool leadership is clueless. They are levelling the same allegations again and again, but their accusations do not have any merit. The people of the state don't believe in such allegations anymore,” Bhattacharya said.

The two schemes in question have become a contentious issue between the Centre and the state government for some time now.

While the Trinamool accuses the Centre of deliberately holding back central funds due to the state government under these projects, the BJP accuses the ruling party of resorting to irregularities in the utilisation of funds marked under the two schemes, which were released earlier.