The ruling Trinamul on Wednesday was stung by a report by a joint review mission (JRM) of the Union ministry of education that alleged that the Bengal government “over-reported” about 16 crore midday meals between April and September last year, which amounted to corruption of over Rs 100 crore.
The report, coming at a time the state government is already battling a slew of corruption charges, came as an embarrassment for Trinamul, said multiple sources in the state administration.
Central teams visited Bengal between January 29 and February 7 to review the midday meal scheme following a complaint by Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition.
Sources said that the teams, assisted by the state government officials, found a gap in the number of meals submitted by the state in its report and the actual number of meals served to students between April and September last year.
“The gap is a whopping 16 crore meals. The state had reported that a total 140 crore meals were supplied during the period, but reports collected from the districts suggest that the figure was 124 crore.... There is a suspicion that a sum of Rs 100 crore was misappropriated,” said a bureaucrat.
The Bengal government, without wasting any time, swatted away the main contention of the report and said it was a “politically motivated” exercise.
“It was decided from the start that Tapan Kumar Adhikary, project director of the cooked midday meal scheme, who was the state representative in the joint review mission will go through the report and then he will sign the report. But this was not done,” state education minister Bratya Basu told journalists.
The Bengal minister said that the report was leaked to the media and circulated on Whatsapp groups.
“So, it is clear that it can’t be a report of any state-Centre joint committee. It was prepared and leaked with certain intentions,” he added.
“It is clear that this joint review mission which almost acted like a central agency came to Bengal with an intention.”
Adhikary, who was present at the news meet, said: “The joint review mission has accused us of over-reporting (meals). But we have not over-reported. We have submitted the quarterly progress report collected from the districts to the Union government twice in July 2022 and November 2022. There is no information on any over-reporting. Our facts are accurate.”
Adhikary said that if the report of the joint review mission was discussed with him, things would have become clear.
“The mission did not seek any clarification from us,” added Basu.
Earlier, the minister had tweeted: “What, therefore, is the ‘joint’ in the joint review committee if the report is not even shared with him for his opinions or views? So it is clear that the views of the State have not been taken into account. We have already written in protest to the chairman of the JRM, to which we have not received any response yet.”
Basu underlined the fact that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, which audits the state’s accounts related to midday meals, has completed its review till 2021-22 financial year and has not raised any question on anomalies.
Trinamul MP Santanu Sen said that the BJP leaked the “one-sided report” as a plan to malign the state government.
The BJP did not miss the chance to attack the Trinamul-led state government over the issue.
“As I have said earlier. @MamataOfficial doesn’t hesitate to steal from students’ plates. Just imagine if they steal Rs 100 Crores from 2 quarters of a financial year, how much they have siphoned off in the last 12 years? WB Govt is doing daylight robbery in the name of governance,” tweeted Adhikari.
Bureaucrats are concerned. “The allegation by the Centre is very serious.... And it comes at a time when the state government is facing an acute crisis after the Centre stopped funds under the 100 days’ jobs scheme over complaints of misappropriation of funds,” said a senior official.
