Special session to discuss CAG reports, says Swapan Dasgupta

The West Bengal Government will hold a special session of the State Assembly to discuss the contents of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports that had been left undebated for the past four years, State Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta has said.

“For now we are only tabling the reports … We want to hold a special session on the CAG reports in the coming days. It is the government’s duty to present its shortcomings,” Dasgupta said about the 28 long-pending CAG reports in the Assembly. The reports were placed on Saturday.

The Finance Minister said that the CAG reports between financial year 2020-21 and 2024-25 would provide a true picture of the State’s finances and may also explain the reason behind the State’s debt burden of `8 lakh crore. Incidentally, the Mamata Banerjee Government had carried a debt burden of Rs 1.92 lakh crore from the previous Left and the Congress Governments. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari too had earlier warned of strict action if the report underscored lapses.

“There are indications that there was large-scale corruption in the utilisation of Amphan relief funds which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had disbursed for the poor people of Bengal” after super cyclone Amphan hit the State in 2020.

He warned FIRs would be lodged against persons found guilty “how so high one is … even it requires an investigation against the Chief Minister (Mamata Banerjee), then the Government will approach the Governor for permission to prosecute the erring persons.”

He said, “Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi-ji provided Rs 3,750 crore in two instalments during Amphan … but soon there were reports of major corruption (in utilisation of funds and distribution of relief) … this even led to Public Interest Litigations (PILs) in the Calcutta High Court.”

According to the CAG reports, the previous Government had placed an inflated demand of Rs 32,000 crore by overstating the damages caused by Amphan.

The report noted that Rs 20000, each was earmarked for all households with fully or partially damaged houses. However, later it was found that house-building grants were credited more than once in more than 9,200 accounts. The loss to the exchequer amounted to Rs 18 crore. 

Incidentally, thousands of bundles of relief materials like clothes, tarpaulin and other stuff were recovered from various party offices of the Trinamool Congress over the past two months or so.