Centre sitting on Rs 10K-cr aid to West Bengal: Didi

Bengal Chief Minister has once again raised the issue of Central deprivation alleging the BJP Government has held back its rightful Rs 10,000 crore earmarked for development.

In the recent weeks the Chief Minister has shot off at least three letters to the Centre demanding clearance of her State’s dues amounting to about Rs 9,959 crore under 16 heads.

According to officials in the State Finance Department the Centre is yet to clear Rs 609 crore — due on account of good performance. Besides, the State has also demanded its due of Rs 3830 crore on account of Sarva Shiksha Aviyan and Rs 790 crore under Mid Day Meal scheme.

Besides there are a number of other schemes under which the State has been deprived of its lawful grants from the Centre, sources said. Accordingly huge amount of money is due under Urban Renewal Mission, National Urban Employment Scheme, Swacchh Bharat and other programmes.

“This is a blatant denial of State rights. The people of Bengal are being deprived. We are not begging for funds.

We are only demanding our dues. The Centre will have to keep in mind that the people of the States pay taxes and out of those taxes the States get their dues for development of their people,” the Chief Minister has said wondering whether Bengal is being deprived because of its political preference.

While the Centre has linked nonpayment of dues with non-receipt of “utilization certificates,” the State Government has vehemently refuted the claims saying “the Centre is creating excuses to deprive Bengal. We have documentary proof to show that we have been regularly sending utilization certificates,” said a senior official.

Notwithstanding Banerjee’s claims of “malicious deprivation” by the Centre the Left Front leadership on the other hand have different things to say.

According to the Marxists “both Mamata Banerjee and the BJP are hand-in-gloves regardless of public saber-rattling in order to polarize votes. Under Trinamool regime BJP has not deprived Bengal. The biggest proof of it is Centre’s sanctioning of Rs 3,100 crore just before the 2016 Assembly elections.

The money was given to clear the dues under 100-days work scheme. The grant saved the day for the Trinamool as it managed to temporarily calm down crores of rural poor. Mamata managed to

scrape through in 70 seats in which the TMC won by a mere 150 to 4,000 votes. Her Government would have fallen in 2016 had BJP not helped it with funds.”

Similarly the Centre had disbursed funds to t he Trinamool Government ahead of this year’s rural elections too, the CPI(M) leadership said.