Mamata should submit accounts of funds spent instead of writing to PM: Dilip Ghosh

BJP West Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh on Sunday claimed that in order to avoid submitting accounts of funds provided by the Centre, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sent a letter demanding release of the state's share of money instead of attending meetings in Delhi for the purpose.

Holding that the Centre gives the state adequate funds, Ghosh claimed that funds get returned to the Centre owing to lack of utilisation by the Trinamool Congress government.

"The Centre is ready to give money but funds given by it are not utilised and goes back. Let them spend the funds given and submit accounts of utilisation," Ghosh, also a Lok Sabha MP, said.

He was replying to queries from reporters on Banerjee's letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking release of funds for the state.

Expressing concern over "steady reduction" of central funds to the state and "inordinate delay" in their release, the chief minister said in the letter sent on Thursday that the state is yet to receive its share of central funds totalling Rs 50,000 crore till January 2020.

Reacting to Ghosh's comments, state minister Firhad Hakim said Banerjee had met the prime minister in Kolkata and also in New Delhi over the demands.

"The chief minister will certainly reiterate the demands when she meets the prime minister again," Hakim said.

On Ghosh's claim that Banerjee sent the letter to the PM to avoid submitting accounts of funds used, Hakim said a government does its work in writing so that it is documented.

Asked whether the ruling Trinamool Congress was in a hurry to hold municipal elections in around 100 civic bodies across the state, the BJP state president said, "What they are attempting is to deprive opposition candidates of opportunity to campaign or get a level playing field in fighting the polls."

He said the BJP wants the elections to be held as per rules and asserted that the saffron party will fight the polls with all its might whenever it is held.

Hakim said despite being the state's municipal affairs minister, he himself does not know when the civic body polls would be held.

"How could then Dilip Ghosh know when the polls will be held? Does he have a spy in the commission?" he said.

"The date will be finalised only after the State Election Commission sends its recommendation on it to the government," Hakim, who is also the Mayor of Kolkata, said.

Municipal corporations of Kolkata and Howrah are among the 100 odd civic bodies where polls will be held in a few months.