February 6, 2017
Vivek Gupta’s Special Mention on federalism
Sir, ek baar phir aap ko dhanyavad ki aaapne mauka diya – bahut kam mauka milta hai Special Mention padne ka, Sir. Hamare Pradhan Mantri ji ne thode din pehle kaha tha, Sir, ki Bharat ki taakat uski federal character aur federal structure hain, aur hum States ke khilaf bade bhai ka attitude mein vishwas nahin rakhte – “We believe in cooperative federalism”. Sir, unke statements se aisa lagta hain ki bilkul States ki madat karni chahiye. States ko apna kaam kaj karne ke like poori poori madat karna chahiye, jo darker hain who dena chahiye.
Sir, mein kuch aakhre aapke madhyam se sarkar ke dhyan main lana chahta hoon. Bengal sarkar ko kareeb dhai lakh crore ka dena mila tha 2011 mein. Paanch saal se zyada ho gaya, Sir, kendriya sarkar ne na humein koi fund diya hain na humein koi madat kiya hain na moratorium – kuch bhi nahin diya. Magar, surprisingly, Sir, videshi desho ko hum zyada madat karte hain, Sir, Bengal mein 101 IAS officer ki shortage hain aur 88 IPS officer ki shortage hain. Regularly iss demands ko sarkar ke saath uthaya ja rahe hain magar sarkar se hamare paas abhi tak koi response nahin aaya hain.
Sir, iske ilawa dekha gaya hain recently, last six months mein – hamari Didi, hamari Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal kayin baar uthaya hain – aajkal Central Government bahut saari decisions arbitrarily leta hain, bina State Government ko consult kiye. The Central Government has now taken a decision without consulting the States to remit money under MNREGA directly to the beneficiary against the earlier practice of involving the States in the process of remitting the same. Despite regular audits done by the CAG, the Central Government has recently appointed two senior officers to measure the working and spending of the treasury of the Bengal Government.
Sir, we feel this is a direct attack on our fiscal independence. Despite all these challenges, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal has made Bengal grow by leaps and bounds. We hope the Government takes these concerns seriously and leaves more trust with the State Governments by decentralising greater powers.
