JOIN USMamata Banerjee likely to meet PM Modi on December 5
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the CMs' meeting in New Delhi on December 5, an official said on Sunday.
During the likely meeting, Banerjee may press for the release of the state's dues from the Centre, he said.
She may also draw PM Modi's attention to the issue of Ganga river bank erosion in areas around Farakka barrage, the official said.
"In the meeting, the chief minister is expected to highlight the arrears pending for the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Bengal. She may also remind the PM about the dues to the state," he said.
PM Modi has convened the chief ministers' meeting in the national capital as India will host the G-20 Summit in 2023.
The invitation has also reached Banerjee's office and the CM will go to Delhi to attend the meeting, the official said.
The meeting between Banerjee and Modi is expected at a time when there is growing clamour from states for the release of dues from the Centre.
Several states, including West Bengal, had claimed that they have been "facing difficulties" in taking up development and social welfare programmes as the fund flow from the Centre has been getting "inordinately delayed".
In a memorandum to PM Modi, Banerjee had tabulated that the dues to the state from the central government as on July 31, 2022 has been estimated to be around Rs 1,00,968.44 crore.
The Bengal CM at a recent rally in Jhargram had said the Centre should do away with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime if it is unable to clear the dues to the state.
Banerjee had also wondered if she would have to “beg” to get the dues cleared.
She had also claimed that "shortage of central funds was the primary reason for the halt of piped water project implementation under the 'Jal Jeevan Mission' scheme.
Recently, former state finance minister Amit Mitra had slammed the Centre and exhorted Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to 'urgently' convene a meeting of the GST Council, which has not met since June.
Mitra, now principal chief advisor to Banerjee, in a letter to Sitharaman, has said that as per the Rules of Conduct, the GST Council has to meet every quarter in a fiscal year.
The GST Council, chaired by Sitharaman and her counterparts from all states, last met on June 28-29 in Chandigarh.
Banerjee had recently written to PM Modi expressing her concern over the continuous erosion by Ganga river in Malda, Murshidabad and Nadia districts and requested him to advise the ministry concerned to conduct a detailed study and formulate an integrated plan to control the situation.
The TMC supremo, during her last meeting with the PM in August, had raised a host of issues concerning West Bengal, including GST dues and timely release of funds by the Centre under various schemes.
At that meeting, she had repeatedly sought the PM's intervention for urgent release of dues to the state on account of the implementation of the rural job scheme, MGNREGA, and other programmes like PM Awas Yojana and the PM Gramin Sadak Yojana.