A former Trinamool Congress panchayat chief in Cooch Behar’s Maruganj area has returned a reported Rs 1.64 lakh to 45 villagers who allegedly paid money to access housing benefits or secure inclusion as job-card holders under the rural employment programme, according to Anandabazar’s report.
The money was reportedly handed back in the presence of local Bharatiya Janata Party leaders. A video showing the alleged return of the money has circulated on social media, but Anandabazar said it had not independently verified the video. The report identified the former panchayat chief as Tapan Kumar Ray, who previously headed the Maruganj region.
The allegations relate to payments allegedly collected from villagers on the promise of helping them become beneficiaries of the Awas Yojana or ensuring that their names were included as job-card holders under the rural employment scheme. According to the report, some villagers were allegedly charged Rs 5,000, while others paid Rs 10,000 or more.
The alleged payments were linked by local BJP leaders to members of the local Trinamool Congress organisation. BJP leaders claimed that Rajesh Tantri, vice-president of the Tufanganj panchayat samiti and a Trinamool Congress district general secretary, was the principal figure behind the alleged collection of money in the Maruganj area. Tantri had been arrested in connection with various allegations, the report said, and is currently out on bail.
Chiranjeeb Das, president of the Tufanganj panchayat samiti and BJP president of the Natabari 3 mandal, claimed that his party’s local leadership pressured those involved to return the money after learning about the alleged collections. He said the total amount returned to the 45 villagers was Rs 1.64 lakh. His allegations were directed mainly at Tantri.
The reported incident places attention on how access to welfare-linked housing and employment benefits can become vulnerable to informal payments at the local level. For villagers, the alleged transactions involved programmes intended to provide public support, making the issue one of access to government entitlements as well as local political control. The report did not provide independent documentary confirmation of the individual payments or details of any formal complaint filed by the villagers.
Anandabazar also reported that similar incidents involving the return of alleged ‘cut money’ had emerged from other parts of West Bengal, including Birbhum, Mathabhanga and Jalpaiguri, after a change in political control. However, the report did not establish whether the cases were connected or whether any official investigation had been ordered in Maruganj.
No Trinamool Congress leader had publicly commented on the allegations at the time of publication, according to the report. The next formal steps, including any police or administrative inquiry into the alleged collections, were not stated.
