Kolkata: 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. CAG
also keeps a watch," he said.
Salim`s rebuttal came hours after Gandhi told a public
rally here that UPA government was sending crores of rupees to
the state under different schemes but the fund was being
siphoned off and going to CPI(M) coffers for the last 33
years.
Salim claimed that central funds did not come from
Congress coffers. The money reached the state government and
not the CPI(M) as alleged by Gandhi.
He alleged the Congress had never "cared for the poor and
the downtrodden, otherwise how did it engineer the move to
raise prices of kerosene oil and essential commodities?"
State Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta also refuted
Gandhi`s allegation of central funds being "misused" by the
government as "absolutely wrong".
"We still have not received the entire central funds
under NREGA," he claimed.
PTI
