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Mamata to party MPs, MLAs: Utilise funds to complete infra projects
With key developmental projects in rural West Bengal slowing down ahead of the crucial 2023 panchayat elections, after the Centre allegedly froze its share of funds, the Trinamool Congress government is now trying to pool in money from alternate sources to keep the work going.
With key developmental projects in rural West Bengal slowing down ahead of the crucial 2023 panchayat elections, after the Centre allegedly froze its share of funds, the Trinamool Congress government is now trying to pool in money from alternate sources to keep the work going.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has recently requested her party’s MPs and MLAs to utilize their Local Area Development (LAD) funds to complete projects that have slowed down due to lack of central funds, TMC leaders said.
“In a recent organizational meeting, she requested MPs and MLAs to utilise their MPLAD and MLALAD fund to construct houses under the Banglar Bari scheme in their respective constituencies,” a TMC leader said, requesting anonymity. “The centre has stopped its flow of funds and five million houses could not be constructed.”
Banerjee has been alleging that the Centre has stopped its flow of funds for several projects like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
“If developmental projects in rural Bengal slow down at this stage, it would definitely have a negative effect on the Mamata Banerjee government. One of the reasons behind this is that she has renamed some of the central projects in Bengali to give an impression that they are state funded. Take for example the Banglar Bari, which is the actually the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana funded jointly by the Centre and the state,” said Amal Mukherjee, a political commentator.
The TMC has 213 legislators and 36 MPs. While each MP gets ₹5 crore, each MLA gets ₹60 lakh for local area development. This would add up to a few hundred crores with which some development work may be done.
“As for the construction of rural roads, she has asked the zilla parishads and panchayat samitis to use their funds. They have been directed to utilise 15% of the funds they get from the 15th finance commission for constructing rural roads and houses,” another TMC leader said, wishing to remain unnamed.
There are at present 825 zilla parishad constituencies spread over 20 zilla parishads, and 9,240 panchayat samiti constituencies in 341 panchayat samitis.
Earlier in May, Banerjee had mooted the idea of creating a crisis management fund by pooling in money from various departments to pay labourers under the 100 days’ work guarantee scheme.
“Every penny sent by the Centre to the state as funds for various scheme is accountable. The Centre had demanded the accounts from the state which the later could not provide because of its irregularities. Hence, the Centre had to stop sending the money,” said Samik Bhattacharya, Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson in West Bengal.
The panchayat election, likely to be held early next year, is being seen as a litmus test for the political parties and a semi-final ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
But the financial crunch is not the only issue that could plague the TMC in the run-up to the 2023 polls. Over the past few days, internal squabbles have broken out within the ranks after the party leadership announced the names of block level leaders in various districts.
While two TMC offices at Andal in West Burdwan were ransacked on September 9 after a fight broke out, allegedly between the supporters of the party’s new block president and vice president. Similarly, there was some resentment among a section of TMC workers at Bhagabangola in Murshidabad district after the new block president’s name was announced. In Cooch Behar, presidents in at least 12 out of 22 blocks were changed.
“There has been some misunderstanding. The party’s top leadership has stepped in. Even though most have been solved after discussions with the local legislator and other local leaders, around seven to eight grievances have reached Mamata Banerjee. The party leadership headed by her has taken up the matter,” said a TMC leader.
Another big challenge before the ruling TMC would be to ensure a violent-free panchayat polls. In the last panchayat polls in 2018, the TMC had won around one-third of the 48,636 gram panchayats and panchayat samitis uncontested. Violence had marred the polling days. The TMC won 79% of the panchayat seats.
“The TMC’s Lok Sabha tally dropped from 34 in 2014 to 22 in 2019. The downfall was widely attributed to the unnecessary violence in the panchayat elections. Banerjee will not take any chances before the 2024 Parliament elections,” said Mukherjee.
The TMC government has been rattled by a series of probes by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate, including the one for the alleged post-poll violence after the 2021 assembly elections.
“I don’t think that she will open another front by engaging in pre- and post-poll violence during the panchayat elections,” Mukherjee said.
Both the party’s supremo Banerjee and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said earlier this week that the TMC will win the panchayat polls through a peaceful and democratic manner.
“The TMC knows very well that this panchayat polls won’t be a cake walk for them. This won’t be a repeat of 2018,” said Bhattacharya of BJP.
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