Bengal: Amid row over ‘dues’, Centre wants state to ‘campaign’ for schemes

The Centre is banking on the Mamata Banerjee government to make its biggest outreach drive ahead of the 2024 elections successful in Bengal amid allegations that it is depriving the state of its “rightful dues”.

Incredulous it may sound, that is the undertone of a recent letter sent by the Centre to the state. In the two-page communique, the Centre has asked the state government to depute a nodal officer, form a committee, and entrust district authorities with making the necessary arrangements for the smooth conduct of Vikshit Bharat Sankalp Yatra.

A perfectly-timed ‘apolitical’ drive

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the nationwide campaign on the occasion of Birsa Munda Jayanti-Jan Jaati Gaurav Diwas on November 15 to showcase the success of the welfare schemes during his nine years in government.

Though the BJP government at the Centre is claiming that the drive is apolitical, the timing and the manner in which it has been fashioned are a dead giveaway to its real intention — influence voters who will be queuing up at the polling booths in a few months to decide the fate of the Modi government.

Information, education, and communication vans will travel across the country during the course of the yatra, covering all the panchayat areas and around 14,000 locations in urban areas disseminating information through audio-visuals, brochures, pamphlets, and other mediums in regional languages about the welfare schemes run by the Modi government.

In Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana, the campaign will be rolled out after the Assembly elections are over there.

During the yatra, key features of the 20-odd centrally sponsored scheme would be showcased, funding for many of which have been frozen in Bengal for around two years now.

The ongoing feud

The Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government has been accusing the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre of “unduly” withholding Rs 15,000 crore due to the state under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and PM Awas Yojana (PMAY).

It has further threatened the state last week to halt the grant under the National Health Mission for not branding the Ayushman Bharat health and wellness centres as per government of India’s norms. It cited irregularities and flouting of norms as reasons for the fund-freeze for MGNREGA and PMAY.

Rubbishing the Centre’s claims, the TMC has hit the streets to politically capitalize the alleged discrimination of the state by the Centre.

It held dharnas in New Delhi and in front of Raj Bhavan in Kolkata to protest against what it called “injustice” meted to the state by the Centre.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given the Centre a 15-day ultimatum to clear “all dues”, failing which she has threatened to launch a massive agitation against the Modi government. The deadline will expire on November 15, the day the prime minister will launch the yatra.

The leaders and functionaries would congregate at Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on November 16 to chart the future course of action if the Centre fails to clear the dues within the stipulated time frame, Banerjee told the media.

The TMC’s proposed agitation would be directly in conflict with the Sankalp Yatra.

The ‘snake-and-stick’ challenge for bureaucracy

The state bureaucracy is in a fix as to how to maintain a balance considering the contradictions.

“It will not be possible for the state government to completely ignore the Centre’s instructions, as it has been projected as a government programme to create awareness about the schemes and to collect feedback about their implementation. At the same time, the political intention behind it cannot be ignored,” said a senior state government official.

“The challenge before us is to, as they say in Bengali, kill the snake without breaking the stick,” he added.

West Bengal parliamentary affairs minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, however, said the Centre could neither constitutionally nor conventionally force the state machinery to campaign for its schemes.