W Bengal finance minister to meet Pranab for storm assistance

KOLKATA: West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta will urge finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday to expedite Rs 1000 crore central assistance for the West Bengal government to deal with the post-Aila devastation. Mr Dasgupta will meet the finance minister in Delhi tomorrow.

He will present a detailed report to the FM on the damages and losses suffered by lakhs of people in West Bengal���s cyclone-hit districts.

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had discussed post-Aila relief with the FM at Kolkata airport on May 29. The decision to send Mr Dasgupta to Delhi with a detailed fact-sheet was taken during the meeting between the chief minister and finance minister.

Mr Bhattacharjee has already sought Rs 1000 crore from the Centre���s National Calamity Relief Fund (NCRF) and also urged Delhi to declare the Cyclone Aila devastation as a national disaster.

Mr Dasgupta���s visit to Delhi is crucial, especially after railway minister Mamata Banerjee urged the Centre not disburse any central funds to the state government and instead them to the panchayats. Mamata had complained a few days ago that the state government was in the habit of misusing central funds, and accordingly, urged the Centre not to release money to the Buddhadeb government for carrying out relief operation.

If Mr Dasgupta indeed manages to release central funds despite Mamata���s opposition, it will signal very clearly that the Congress-led UPA government is not really attaching much importance to her demands. He has already made it clear that the Centre cannot bypass the state government in releasing fund under the federal structure of the Indian government.

Meanwehile, Left Front chairman and CPIM politburo member Biman Bose on Monday expressed concern over politicising the rescue and relief operations by the opposition parties. He also indicated that the Front might urge the government to convene an all-party meeting to smoothen the relief operation and to avoid political interference in distribution of relief materials among the storm-hit people.