Kolkata: After stopping funds under Awas Yojana and MGNREGS, the Centre may take a similar stance by not providing funds to the Bengal government under the National Health Mission.
Speculations are doing the rounds after the Centre had recently written to the state government threatening to stop providing funds if “colour branding is not followed.
A section of senior government officials are of the opinion that the Centre may attempt to stop funds in this pretext. Centre said that if “branding” norms are not properly followed, they may stop the supply of funds.
The Centre has accused the Bengal government of ignoring the names of the “Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres” which have come up in the primary and block levels.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reportedly expressed concern over the matter during the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. She reportedly told her cabinet colleagues that the BJP-led Centre has been “saffronising” everything. According to sources the Centre wants the Bengal government to strictly follow the “branding” norms. The National Health Mission Director has recently written to the state health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam in this regard as well. Incidentally, the Centre has already stopped providing its share of around 25 per cent of funds in connection with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme against the 75 per cent share that the Bengal government bears. The state government will now have to spend the entire funds that are utilised for the payment of salaries for the supervisors and other government officials involved in the process of supervising the foods that are served to the children and pregnant women under the ICDS scheme.
The Centre on August 1 issued a notification saying that they would no longer bear a 25 per cent share that is diverted towards the payment of salary of state government employees and supervisors whose job is to ensure that children get proper food. There are around 5,053 supervisors in the state and 576 child development project officers (CDPO) and 23 District Programme Officers (DPOs) across Bengal.
Sources said that the Centre has been reducing its share of ICDS funds over the years. Initially, it used to bear 90 per cent cost of the scheme and later funds were reduced up to 60 per cent. Finally, the Centre and state were spending funds in a 25:75 ratio.