A review of the fund status of the state government has revealed that gram panchayats — the lowest tier in the three-tier panchayat system — did not spend more than Rs 1,800 crore received from the 15th Finance Commission.
The revelation has come as another embarrassment for the Trinamul-led government, which has been blaming the Centre for blocking funds to “settle political scores.”
A Nabanna source said a scrutiny of the failure to use funds — which could have created jobs in development work — revealed infighting within Trinamul as the main reason.
“In most gram panchayats, there are two rival groups of the ruling party.... It has been found out that clash between rival factions on which projects to be implemented and how to spend money has led to unused funds,” said a source.
As funds from the 15th Finance Commission, a constitutional body, directly reach the gram panchayats and the devolution is not tied to any conditionalities, rural bodies enjoy the freedom to spend the money on any project planned by them. “The state started the 2022-23 financial year with a carry-over of Rs 1,974 crore. The state received Rs 1,142 crore in the ongoing financial year from the 15th Finance Commission, but could spend only Rs 1,304 crore. That means Rs 1,812 crore could not be spent,” said a bureaucrat, adding this corpus could have been used for development projects ahead of rural polls.
An official said that Rs 172.44 crore is lying unspent with panchayats in Murshidabad, Rs 162.93 crore with South 24-Parganas, Rs 152.59 crore with North 24-Parganas and Rs 138 crore with Nadia.
“Infighting within Trinamul is intense in these districts and that’s the reason why they could not utilise the funds properly,” said a source.
Under norms, panchayats decide on the projects, and then officials — each panchayat has a secretary — release the funds for it. “If panchayat office bearers don’t reach a consensus, how can officials release funds?” said a source.
“The chief minister asked authorities to use 50 per cent of this fund to develop rural roads since the Centre froze funds under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.... But rival groups (within Trinamul) with fight to hire contractors of their choice. That’s why work orders couldn’t be issued in large areas,” said an official.
