Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday wrote to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, expressing fears that development and welfare funds intended for the people of West Bengal might be diverted and mismanaged to "delay" an impending financial crisis.

Adhikari also met the Union minister in Delhi and shared on X, "Met Smt. @nsitharaman Ji and tried to draw her attention towards the prospect of intentional diversion and misappropriation of Developmental and Welfare funds by the West Bengal Government, as a desperate attempt to delay the ensuing financial meltdown in the state."

In his letter to Sitharaman, the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly referenced an alleged communication from the state's finance department to district magistrates. The communication reportedly requested bank account details, including closing balances, from all levels of state government offices, ostensibly to "enhance the management of the state's financial resources."

Adhikari warned that following the decline of industrialisation, "West Bengal is on the brink of financial collapse amid a pandemic-induced job crisis." "Now the fear is that the development and welfare funds meant for the people might get either unethically diverted, delayed, mismanaged or misappropriated to somehow delay the ensuing financial meltdown in the state," he informed Sitharaman.

Highlighting central funds such as PMGSY, MDM (PM Poshan), ICDS, and MSDP (for minority development), he stressed the need for "rigorous financial oversight and scrutiny in the public interest," to prevent the state government from misusing funds.

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