Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari has appealed to the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India to stop granting loans to the Mamata Banerjee Government.
Claiming that the Bengal Government had once again sought a loan of Rs 10,000 crore from the RBI --- for alleged development purpose --- Adhikari has said that though the loan after receiving the money the State would spend that on non-planned areas.
The amount would not be used for development as claimed by the Government, Adhikari has said adding the TMC Government would misuse the fund for political gains.
Saying that the Bengal Government had violated the borrowing limit under the FRBM Act Adhikari has tweeted “the … Government has request a loan from the RBI for an amount of Rs 10,000 crore… Bengal has already breached its borrowing limit under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.”
Claiming that the State already had borrowed about Rs 6 lakh crore Adhikari said “although this amount has been sought for infrastructure development it will be used for payment of employees’ salaries and payments like Lakshmir Bhandar. Needless to say there are many bogus employees in local bodies and most Lakshmir Bhandar benefeciaries are not eligible to receive any grant.”
Adhikari is also known to have written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman not to entertain Banerjee’s requests to clear loans for the State.
Incidentally with the panchayat elections scheduled to take early next year and with the payment of MNREGA wages due for the past several months the State Government has been repeatedly urging the Centre to clear its dues that allegedly has accrued to about Rs 97,000 crore.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has often attacked the Centre for not clearing central dues that rightfully belonged to Bengal. The Opposition BJP has however alleged that the Centre would clear the dues only when the State Government accounted for the previous expenditures.