Funds cloud on CM meet

Calcutta, Aug. 24: The spectre of funds crunch hung heavy on the first collective review meeting of the Mamata Banerjee government that was held this evening to ensure better funds utilisation and co-ordination among departments.

The meeting at Town Hall was attended by almost all ministers and departmental secretaries.

When the chief minister spoke about the need to utilise allocated funds through project creation and infrastructure development, a bureaucrat stood up and asked how his department, in charge of a key area of administration, would do so as it had not got “a single paisa” so far in this fiscal year, sources said. “Madam, my department has not yet got a single paisa this year. How are we to utilise funds if we don’t get any?” he asked.

Mamata promised to look into the matter and asked finance minister Amit Mitra and his secretary, C.M. Bachhawat, to hasten the disbursal of the promised funds.

None of the ministers and the remaining 51 secretaries present “dared” to raise the issue again but the bureaucrats discussed the matter among themselves in hushed voices, the sources said.

“Frankly, I didn’t dare ask the same question again. The problem of funds is worsening,” an IAS officer said.

Bengal is faced with an acute cash crunch. The state is reeling from a debt burden of over Rs 2 lakh crore. The finance minister has not yet been able to table a full-fledged budget this year and there have been no new tax proposals and steps to enhance revenue generation. The chief minister recently admitted in public that the Rs 9,240 crore received from the Centre would help the state government to meet basic expenses for barely four to five months.

Mitra, however, dodged the question whether the crunch featured in today’s meeting. “I am confident that the money that has been promised will be arranged for,” he said, without elaborating.

Chief secretary Samar Ghosh addressed the meeting first, followed by Mitra and Bachhawat.

Then Mamata took over. She spoke for over an hour during the 90-minute session, emphasising on asset creation, the need to plan and implement new projects and infrastructure development.

“Today’s meeting was historic…. Veteran Assembly members unanimously said such a session was unprecedented in Bengal, at least in the past 34 years,” Mitra said. “We will hold such collective review meetings regularly,” he added.

But many who attended the session sounded less enthusiastic. “The chief minister stressed on the need to utilise budgetary allocations for projects so that the people’s money reaches the people in the form of benefits. But in most cases, the funds have not even reached the departments,” a minister said later.

Mamata, the finance minister said, emphasised on issuing completion certificates for projects so that funds can flow unhindered from the coffers of the Centre and the state.

“Only when you utilise funds can you get more funds from the Centre,” Mitra said.

The sources said Mamata instructed the ministers and officials to ensure prompt utilisation of the Rs 300 crore the Centre recently gave as a grant-in-aid for the development of backward areas.