Kolkata, Sept 6 (PTI) Hitting back at Rahul Gandhi for his charge that the CPI(M) had siphoned off central funds meant for the poor and downtrodden in West Bengal, the ruling party today said the Congress leader did not have any idea of the ground reality.

"It appears from Rahul Gandhi's allegation that he has a lack of sense of ground reality because there exists a monitoring mechanism on utilising central funds and also an auditing system," CPI(M) Central Committee member Md Salim said.

Salim said every paisa of the central allocation was properly accounted for in the Utilisation Certificate.

Besides, there exists a regular monitoring system.

"Otherwise, there would have been no sanction for the central funds in the last 33 years of Left Front rule...

Utilisation of central funds is debated in the form of question-answer in Parliament and a general audit is done.