By Zaidul Haque, TwoCircles.net,
Kolkata: When a few years back Sachar Committee Report exposed the poor condition of Muslims in West Bengal, the state Left Front government denied the findings of the report regarding the minority community in the state. Now when Central government is spending thousands of crores of rupees under Multi-sectoral Development Programme (MsDP) for 90 minority districts including 12 in West Bengal, the Left government is now fudging data to hide poor utilization of the MsDP fund.
On 19th October 2010, the Information & Cultural Department of West Bengal released a status report Vide Memo No: ICA/NR/23/10 on the Utilization of MsDP fund in 12 districts.
Muslim villagers lining up in Murshidabad (West Bengal) for free weekly ration from an NGO Charity Alliance [Photo by Mumtaz Alam Falahi TwoCircles.net]
According to the report, which does not mention time period, the Central Government has released above Rs 277 crore and the state government gave its share of above Rs 47 crore. But out of total Rs 325 crore for 12 minority concentration districts in the state, the state government could spend only Rs 57 crorre that is just 17.5% of the released fund.
Soon after the release of the report, Minister of State, Minority Affairs & Madrasa Education, Abdus Sattar came under heavy criticism for very low contribution share from the state and poor utilization of the total MsDP fund. Chief Secretary of Minority Affairs & Madrasa Development Bhagaboti Prasad Gopalika faced lots of questions from media. Interestingly both the Departments of Information & Cultural and Minority Affairs & Madrasa Education come under the direct supervision of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.
West Bengal Chief MinisterBuddhadeb Bhattacharya
Saving his face Chief Secretary denied the report is from Information & Cultural Department of West Bengal. He even condemned the Dept and said it did not take the report from Minority Ministry. He further said the true report will be released later. The Chief Secretary called an emergency meeting on 26th October and a new status report on utilization of the MsDP fund was released on 29th October.
However, the new report has turned out to be a blunder. To show good performance of the state, the report not only shows increased state share it also increased % of utilization of the funds. Under the spirit of exaggeration the new report turned lakhs into crores. While doing all these state the officials ignored or forgot the Central Government’s MsDP fund utilization report released in September 2010.
West Bengal Minority Affair Minister Abdus Sattar
Unlike the first report which did not give time frame, the new report says the expenditure figure is about the period ending on 30 September 2010.
According to the report, the Centre has released Rs 26463.74 crore (in fact it is in lakhs) and the state has given its share of Rs 4350.77 crore (lakh). Of the total Rs 30814.51 crore (lakh) Rs 17488.11 crore (lakh) has been utilized by 30-09-2010, thus the percentage of utilization is 56.75%.
While analyzing the two reports, let’s have a look at the Central Government’s MsDP utilization report. According to central report, by 31.08.2010, the central government had given the state Rs 27866.72 lakh (i.e. above Rs 278 crore) while the state till that date had given only Rs 540.46 lakh. And out of the total of Rs 28407.18 lakh only Rs 7262.72 lakh could be utilized by the state by 31.08.2010 – that is only 25.56% utilization of the total funds.
One wonders how in just one month the West Bengal government increased the utilization percentage from 25.56% (according to central government) to 56.75%. By 31 August it could utilize only Rs 72 crore and how by the end of 30 September it utilized Rs 174 crore.
TwoCircles.net has a copy of both reports of the state government.