Clear dues of Rs 77K crore that Centre owes to state: Trinamool

Kolkata: Going all out against the Union Home Minister Amit Shah for making false allegations against the state government, Trinamool Congress (TMC) demanded that the Centre should clear the whopping Rs 77,000 crore which it owes to the Bengal government.

The amount includes Rs 32,310 crore of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for supercyclone Amphan and Rs 11,000 crore of 2019-20 devolution funds.

It may be mentioned that Trinamool Congress chairperson and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had taken a swipe at Shah for his "false allegations" of corruption against the party. She demanded resignation of the Modi government if they cannot prove the allegations. She had over and again highlighted different issues to put forward how the Centre has been depriving the people of the state. She had said while addressing in various public gatherings that how the Centre neglected the state when it fought to tackle the aftermath of Amphan just by providing "the usual Rs 1000 crore to SDRF".

Giving details of the funds that has not been released by the Centre under different heads, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien stated that "the Home Minister and Manager of the 'tourist gang' will fail a Lie Detector Test every time he makes a speech in Bengal." Highlighting a part of Shah's statement. He further stated in his tweet that "LIE: "3.59 lakh crore funds given to Bengal siphoned off" Prove it! Wild allegations. But first, release Rs 77,000 crore funds+Amphan dues owed to Bengal."

As claimed by O'Brien, the Centre is yet to release "SDRF dues for Amphan' of Rs 32,310 crore. This comes when the total damage was estimated as Rs 1.02 lakh crore. It has also been stated that the Centre did not release Rs 14,520 crore of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rs 6,334 crore of damage caused by cyclone Bulbul that happened in November 2019, Rs 1,238 crore of drainage and flood management and Rs 233 crore for midday meal programme.

It may be mentioned that the Chief Minister herself had repeatedly urged the Centre to clear the dues at the earliest as the state has incurred an expenditure of around Rs 2,500 crore for Covid and Rs 6,500 crore to tackle the aftermath of super cyclone Amphan.

At the time when the Centre owes Rs 77,000 crore to the Bengal government, the Chief Minister had tabled a budget of Rs 2,99,888 crore (Net) for 2021-22 financial year with a series of new initiatives with stress on infrastructure development and social sector. After announcing the same, she had ensured that financial allotment for all the proposals have been done which shows that these are not mere pre-poll assurances.

After stating that there is "sufficient resources" to implement the projects announced by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the state Finance Minister Amit Mitra has accused the Centre of "hatching a conspiracy to deprive states from its shares out of different taxes by levying more cess and surcharges as it has increased to 16 percent at present from 8 percent, five years ago. Again, he had assumed that the Centre would deduct Rs 10,000 crore from the devolution fund in the coming financial year.