Centre will not recover Kosi fund: Pranab

The Centre will not recover the Rs 1,000 crore given to the Bihar government to provide relief to Kosi flood victims last year. “There is no question of recovering the money,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour on Friday,while responding to JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav,who had raised the matter. Yadav had cited a letter dated April 27,2009 sent by the Centre to the Bihar Chief Secretary that had sought the return of the money. Describing it unjust,Yadav reminded the government that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had called the Kosi flood a national calamity. Mukherjee said the letter had been sent for technical reasons,”But I am assuring that there is no question of returning or recovering the money.” The government,according to him,had decided on this “keeping in view the magnitude of the tragedy.”