Ministers raise voice against Centre's non-cooperation

Kolkata: Three state ministers on Tuesday raised their voices against the Centre for ignoring the state by not responding to the demands of their respective departments at the state Assembly's question answer session.

State Finance and Industry minister Amit Mitra alleged that the Centre has not released any fund for the flood-like situation in the state, while state Law minister Moloy Ghatak was vocal against stoppage of matching grants for the Centre in the last few years that has posed a hindrance in the setting up of court buildings.

State Consumer Affairs and Self Help Group minister Sadhan Pande also was vocal against the non co-operation of the banks in providing loans to the SHGs.

"The state had demanded Rs 6,068 crore but the Centre has not made any financial assistance for undertaking flood relief work. The state alone had spent Rs 772.6 crore from the State Disaster Relief Fund but the National Disaster Relief Fund has not allocated a penny," Mitra said.

The state Finance minister also hit out at the centre alleging that sending a team from Delhi to the districts having flood-like situation was a mere eyewash.

In response to the allegations of Left Front MLA Ashok Bhattacharya of depriving the Opposition-led blocks of flood relief assistance by the state government, Mitra reiterated that a total of 254 blocks, 51 municipalities, 1,691 gram panchayats and 15,702 villagers received the state's aid. "This is testimony to the fact that there has been no discrimination was made on political grounds," he added.

RSP MLA Biswanath Chowdhury suggested all the parties together should take up this issue with the Centre.

Labour and Law minister Moloy Ghatak criticised the Centre for withholding matching central grants for the last three years. He pointed out that construction work of Tamluk court building and Gangarampur sub-division court building were getting delayed for this purpose.

"We have submitted a financial requisition to the state Finance department and work will start soon," Ghatak said adding that Bishnupur court building has been inaugurated recently.

He also added that at present, the pending cases with the High Court are 19,802 in original side and 2,23,467 in appellate side while in lower courts 21,96,272 cases are pending. Ghatak said that despite 38 vacant posts of judges, the case disposal rate has improved.

Complaining of non co-operation by banks, Pande said that the Centre should urge banks to provide reasonable amount of loans to the SHGs as this is posing a barrier for their development.