Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clear the State’s dues that ran into several thousand crores. The Chief Minister who along with the Prime Minister jointly inaugurated the Covas machine to facilitate corona tests through a virtual window said without the Central assistance it was becoming difficult to fight the pandemic situation.
“Already we have spent Rs 2,500 crore towards fighting the corona situation. We need more funds and at present we have a due of Rs 53,000 crore from the Centre… I would request you to kindly clear the State’s dues so that we can handle the situation on our own,” Banerjee told the Prime Minister.
The new machine that was launched today has a capability of testing 10,000 cases per day. Apart from corona the machine can test dengue, and Hepatitis B and C too, sources said.
The Chief Minister who has written to the Centre on a number of occasions for clearance of its dues told the Prime Minister how her State had received only Rs 125 crore from the Centre whereas it had already spent Rs 2,500 crore to fight pandemic.
“I also request you to kindly send Rs 135 due in terms of GST,” Banerjee said reminding how the State’s revenues had seen a sharp drop in the past several months and there was an urgent need of central help.
On the assured Central help for meeting the extraordinary expenses to fight the post Amphan (super cyclone) crisis Banerjee said the Prime Minister had visited Bengal after the super cyclone hit the State and granted Rs 1,000 crore “but after that we have not received any grant from the Centre whereas we have already spent Rs 6,500 crore to fight the Amphan crisis.”
Saying Bengal will continue to stand by the Centre in its fight against corona Banerjee said “the funds if it were released from the Centre would only help the cause of fighting the pandemic.”
Banerjee lodged a veiled complaint against State Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar for repeatedly interfering in the State’s functions and attacking the State Government even as she said “some people despite being in the constitutional posts have made it a point to repeatedly attack the State Government and interfere with its works… I would like to draw the attention of the Prime Minister to this also” Banerjee said.
Dhankhar and Banerjee had been at loggerheads ever since he joined office last year with the two top state functionaries often engaging in open letter wars against each other.
The Governor had a few days ago visited Delhi where he met Home Minister Amit Shah and drew his attention towards the “worrisome situation” of law and order in the State.