Weeks after Union and state government officials met in New Delhi to discuss West Bengal's pending funds, the Centre reminded the Mamata Banerjee-led government that the latter had accepted that "irregularities have been observed in the past" in the implementation of the PM Awas Yojana (PMAY). During a dharna against the BJP-led Centre for allegedly blocking state funds in January, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said that her government would be paying dues under the PMAY from its coffers. The note sheet, which was sent by the Union Ministry of Rural Development on February 9, stated that the Centre had allocated a target of 11.36 lakh houses from finalised lists in November 2022 for the state. “Thereafter, it (Centre) was informed that following issues were still persisting in the state: renaming of scheme as Bangla Awaas Yojana, sanction of houses to ineligible households, deletion of names of eligible households, and irregularities reported in the news articles/ media reports." The letter also claimed the ministry has already released central funds for the targets. “However, due to the above cited issues, the central share of funds for targets from finalised Awaas lists were not released to the state,” it further stated. “The state government reiterated that they have given an undertaking from their Chief Secretary to the Ministry of Finance for implementation of centrally sponsored schemes without any alteration, for claiming special central assistance for projects. Hence, the state is committed to implement the schemes, including PMAY-G in a rule-bound and transparent manner. The state government accepted that irregularities have been observed in the past, however, the state is committed to take corrective action and ensure that irregularities are not repeated in future,” the note sheet added. A senior state government official said, “We are hopeful after the Ministry of Rural Development sent us the minutes of the meeting. That means it has set the ball rolling. However, we are still in the dark over when the central government will release our pending funds.” Last year, Banerjee had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi to discuss pending funds for the state under various centrally-sponsored schemes. On January 23, six officials of the Bengal government had met Union government officers in the nation capital to talk about early release of the funds to the state.
