September 17, 2020
Arpita Ghosh’s Special Mention demanding central grants for Ghatal Master Plan
FULL TRANSCRIPT
In Bengal, areas of Ghatal get flooded seasonally by the Shilabati River. Even places like Chetua and Daspur are affected by this. A lot of problems are caused to the people living there due to this constant flooding. To provide relief to the people, the Irrigation Department of the Government of Bengal had chalked out a plan called the Ghatal Master Plan which was sent to the Centre for clearance in 2014.
While the Centre had finally given its clearance a couple of years ago, the 1300 crore project is still being funded by the State. In the past, irrigation projects had a 75-25 Centre – State sharing relationship. Since 2014, this has been reduced to a 50-50 share. But the State is still to receive the share from the Centre. This means that the State government has had to pay the entire share from their coffers. While this is financially stressful in itself, the pandemic, Cyclone Amphan and lack of GST dues means that the State finances are in dire straits.
The construction and relief work in Ghatal is critical for the people and their livelihoods. We have been urging the Centre for the last six years since the plan was submitted for clearance to provide us our dues. I request the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Jal Shakti to look into this matter at the earliest and release the funds owed to Bengal for this project.
