Mamata Banerjee urges PM Modi to release funds to help state fight Covid-19

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the Centre is yet to release the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation worth Rs 4,135 crore for April and May

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to release Rs 53,000 crore, which the Centre owes to the state for various social security schemes and other funds amounting to thousands of crores to help the state’s fight against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has requested the PM that states are allowed to take independent decisions on the issue of holding of final-year university examinations because of the threat posed by the pandemic. (PTI)

She said that the Centre is yet to release the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation worth Rs 4,135 crore for April and May and urged the Modi government to withdraw all conditions imposed on the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2003, in a bid to give full advantage to the states to utilise the funds.

“The state had requested the Centre to release Rs 35,000 crore after cyclone Amphan had hit Bengal. You had surveyed the areas with your team. But, only Rs 1,000 crore has been released to date,” she reminded the PM.

The CM made this remark while attending a virtual programme in which the PM launched high throughput Covid-19 testing facilities at the Indian Council for Medical Research’s (ICMR) national institutes in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Noida in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Union health minister, CMs of UP, and Maharashtra; Harshvardhan, Yogi Adityanath and Uddhav Thackeray, respectively, also attended the virtual programme.

The CM said that even though the state is being asked to utilise the money from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) to fight the Covid-19 crisis, it could not be done as those funds have to be kept aside to tide over natural calamities such as cyclones and floods, which Bengal is prone to.

This is not the first time that the Banerjee has requested the Centre to release its pending dues of Rs 53,000 crore.

She also requested the PM that states are allowed to take independent decisions on the issue of holding of final-year university examinations because of the threat posed by the pandemic.

She also lodged a complaint against Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, but stopped short of naming him. “Some people are using their constitutional positions to harass the state government every day,” she added as a comment in passing.