Money for many central schemes not released: WB minister

The Centre's failure to release money for work done under many centrally-sponsored schemes in the last financial year was causing huge problems for the West Bengal government, state Panchayati Raj and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee told the Assembly today.
Speaking during presentation of the budget for his department, Mukherjee said that under the NREGA programme, the Centre had released only Rs 1,800 crore out of the total dues of Rs 3,000 crore, which the state was now disbursing.
Due to curtailment in funds under NREGA, the state was forced to cut the mandays target to 18 crore during the current fiscal, he said adding that last fiscal, West Bengal had clocked 23 crore mandays under the scheme.

Since the right to work had been enshrined in the Constitution, no one could stop the NREGA programme as it was now a fundamental right, he pointed out.
He blamed the BJP for curtailing the scope of NREGA in West Bengal as the party did not get votes in the state and said that be it the ruling party or the Opposition, it was a shared responsibility to see that such schemes continued in the interest of the poor people.
Under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) programme, total dues pending was around Rs 3500 crore, while salaries to teachers under Sarva Siskha Abhiyan were due for three months.

Emphasising that the Panchayati Raj system was the engine for driving rural growth and development, Mukherjee said that the state would shortly introduce biometric system to bring in more transparency.