Not receiving funds under PMAY for last three years, says Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Tuesday, accused the Centre of not releasing funds under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) to the state government for the last three years.

“For the last three years, we have not received any funds under PMAY. A total of Rs 1.70 lakh crore of Central funds are due to us. Still, we are trying to allot as many houses as possible from our limited resources,” the Chief Minister said at the sidelines of an administrative review meeting at Bolpur.

She also said the money for 11 lakh houses in the district will be released shortly. She also announced that the expenditure for restoration of roads damaged because of flood will be met from the development funds allotted to the legislators.

Speaking on the flood situation in the state, the Chief Minister said that although the situation has improved to an extent now, certain pockets in the state are still inundated.

“It is unfortunate that West Bengal does not get floods just because of the rainfall. The state gets flooded because of the water released from Jharkhand,” she said.

Justifying her decision to withdraw the representation of the state government in Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC), the Chief Minister said that there is no point in maintaining that representation since Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) is responsible for the flood situation in the state because of its indiscriminate release of water from their barrages and that too without giving prior intimation to the state government.

“I do not want to maintain any connection with any organisation which kills human beings by indiscriminately releasing water. Now DVC is concentrating on power generation forgetting its prime objective of protecting the state from flood,” the Chief Minister said.

She said that DVC had repeatedly ignored the state government’s pleas for gradually releasing water instead of releasing huge quantities in one go.

IANS