Mamata meets PM Modi, presses for prompt release of Bengal’s dues

Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee along with her nine party MPs met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday and raised the issue of pending dues of Rs 1.15 lakh crore from the Centre, in a time-bound manner.

After the meeting, Banerjee told reporters that the Prime Minister assured her that a joint meeting would be held between the officials of both the state and the Centre to look into Bengal government’s demands on releasing central funds for various projects.

“Prime Minister heard our demands and assured us that he will arrange a joint meeting of Central and state government officials to find a solution,” Banerjee said and pointed out that it is not the first time she has approached the Prime Minister on this issue.

“Around 155 Central teams have already visited Bengal. Our officials have given all the clarification they asked for. We didn’t even get a penny for 100 days of work (under MGNREGA) in the Budget for 2022-23. It is mandatory under the Constitution to pay the workers,” Banerjee added.

She further stated: “Funds for (Pradhan Mantri) Awas Yojna have been stopped, rural development schemes have been shut including the health mission programme. We are also not getting funds under the Finance Commission,” said Banerjee.

She also remarked that the state has given innumerable clarifications to the Centre on this issue and reminded that in a federal structure, both the state and the Centre have their respective shares.

The Chief Minister, on Wednesday, also wrote a detailed memorandum to the PM giving detailed account of the dues. “Dues of nearly Rs 1.16 lakh crore from Government of India are pending on account of various Central government-sponsored schemes and claims for natural disasters over past years. The outstanding dues include ‘core of the core’ social schemes such as MGNREGS, PMAY, PMGSY, NHM etc,” read the letter.

“Despite compliance of the CSS guidelines by the state, the Central share for MGNREGA and PM Awas Yojana has not been released by the Ministry of Rural Development nearly for the past two financial years. The MGNREGA payment to the tune of nearly Rs 6911 crore - Rs 3732 crore against wage liability and Rs 3179 crore against non-wage liabilities – is pending. Similarly, Central share has not been released for 11,01,731 houses sanctioned under PM Awas Yojana in spite of the state’s special initiative for identifying deserving households,” read the letter.

She also reminded PM Modi that the GSDP of Bengal during the last 12 years had increased from Rs 4.60 lakh crore in 2010-11 to Rs 15.54 lakh crore in 2022-23, an increase of 3.37 times.

“This reflects the remarkable progress made by the state in all sectors.

There has been a marked improvement in all fiscal parameters achieved by way of implementation of far-reaching reforms in financial and revenue administration,” read the letter.