The West Bengal government led by CM Mamata Banerjee has often accused the BJP-led Centre of depriving it of necessary funds for development.
TMC govt’s failure to meet CSS norms gives Centre upper hand in Bengal fund standoff
West Bengal skipped six years of mandatory DISHA meetings and failed to submit utilisation certificates, providing the Centre grounds to freeze MGNREGS and housing funds
While the West Bengal government has intensified criticism of the BJP-led Union government for the non-release of funds for centrally sponsored schemes (CSS), there is an ironic twist to it.
The state’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) government itself has failed to adhere to the CSS guidelines, including the requirement to establish a key mechanism critical for the effective implementation and monitoring of such schemes.
Centre gets excuse, admit officials
Many state government officials admit in private that such oversights provide the Centre a convenient excuse to withhold the funds.
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West Bengal is the only state in the country where not a single meeting of the statutory District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) has been convened over the past six financial years, including the current one, as per a report of the rural development (RD) ministry on the effective functioning of DISHA committees.
The ministries of rural development and home affairs separately cited the West Bengal government's failure to submit utilisation certificates (UCs) for schemes under them as the reason for withholding funds. Findings of the report made public earlier in August revealed that among the country’s 776 districts, not one in West Bengal held a DISHA meeting between 2020-21 and June 6, 2025.
According to the central government directives, every district in the country should have a DISHA committee comprising MPs, MLAs, representatives of panchayats and municipalities, and district collectors for the coordination and monitoring of the schemes.
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As per the norm, at least four meetings of the district committee should be held annually.
The West Bengal government has also not yet formed a state-level DISHA committee, the 43-page report revealed.
Structural failure, not procedural lapse
BJP and Congress MPs and MLAs from the state have raised the issue on several occasions, but in vain. Besides, the RD ministry also sent several reminders to the state about the requirement to hold DISHA meetings to review bottlenecks in the implementation of 96 schemes spanning 35 central ministries.
Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, on the other hand, emphasised that the Centre would consider releasing withheld funds to West Bengal if the state fulfills the necessary compliance requirements. The ministry pointed out that the absence of DISHA meetings in West Bengal is not a procedural lapse, but a structural failure that undercuts the core mechanisms of transparency, coordination, and corrective governance, all of which are essential for an efficient CSS delivery.
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Some officials in the West Bengal government privately admit that defiance of central directives is weakening the state’s position in its dispute with the Centre over the fund freeze.
“The Centre uses DISHA meetings to assess the performance of states in executing projects and using funds effectively. Hence, holding such meetings at regular intervals is crucial,” an official told The Federal.
The Rural Development ministry has also conveyed that the release of funds under schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) is contingent upon the state's adherence to required compliances, including the holding of DISHA meetings, the official pointed out.
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Failure to submit utilisation certificates
The non-conduct of the DISHA meeting is not the only transparency requirement the Centre has accused the state’s Mamata Banerjee government of violating.The ministries of rural development and home affairs separately cited the West Bengal government’s failure to submit utilisation certificates (UCs) for schemes under them as the reason for withholding funds.
Earlier in August, the home ministry clarified that no funds have been released to West Bengal so far in the current fiscal under the police modernisation scheme for non-submission of the UC of the funds released earlier. The state reportedly has an unspent balance of Rs 12.5 crore under the scheme, for which it has also failed to submit any UC.
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Similarly, the RD ministry informed a parliamentary panel that the state government’s failure to submit UCs for previous allocations is one of the reasons for the pending release of Rs 7,888.67 crore to West Bengal under the PMAY-G scheme for the 2024-25 financial year.
TMC accuses Centre of weaponsing grants
The ruling TMC alleges there is a broader pattern in the funding impasse, accusing the Centre of weaponising CSS grants against the state.
“Bhate marar chakranta" (the conspiracy to deprive the state of its basic sustenance) is how Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee describes the fund freeze, alleging that the Centre is withholding approximately Rs 1.7 lakh crore meant for the CSS and flood relief programmes, thereby impacting crucial development and welfare initiatives.
The brunt of the deadlock is being borne by the poor. As of late July 2025, there are over 2.5 crore registered rural workers in the state. The prolonged funding freeze since March 2022 has left all of them without access to MGNREGS work and wages for three consecutive years. So far, the state government has disbursed pending dues to nearly 30 lakh workers from its own coffers.
