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-The Telegraph
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<em>Siliguri, April 7: </em>If the panchayat system is dissolved and not replaced by newly elected bodies on time, at least three central schemes would come to a halt in the state, Jairam Ramesh said today.
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According to the Union rural development minister the national job scheme for villagers, which entails 100-days work for at least one member of a BPL family, would be hit the most. The other two schemes that would be affected are the rural drinking water supply and sanitation.
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&quot;We are concerned about the continuation of at least three schemes. The MGNREGS tops the list of schemes to be hit. The other two to be affected are the rural drinking water supply and sanitation schemes, as the tenure of the panchayats will expire by the end of next month,&quot; the Union minister told The Telegraph on way to Darjeeling.
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The state government and the state election commission are at loggerheads over the security arrangements and the number of phases of the panchayat polls. The matter has reached Calcutta High Court. The poll dates cannot be finalised till a solution is reached.
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&quot;With both sides in court, there is not much possibility of polls being held in the near future and panchayats being in place by end of May,&quot; an administrative official here said.
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Making it clear that he was only stating rules, Ramesh said: &quot;Going by the rules and legislation, no work under these schemes can be done unless there are elected bodies in place in all the three tiers of the panchayat. This is not a threat, I am just stating rules.&quot;
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Reacting to Ramesh's statements, state panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee said tonight in Calcutta that &quot;the Congress has no right to stop central funds for Bengal&quot;. &quot;Are the funds for the central schemes the Congress's father's property (Kendriya fund-er taka ki Congress-er baper sampatti)?&quot; he told The Telegraph.
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Mukherjee cited the example of Andra Pradesh where the Centre has been funding various central schemes for 10 years though there has been no panchayat elections during that period. &quot;There has been no election to the rural bodies in Andhra Pradesh for the last 10 years. Then how is the Centre funding the schemes in that state?&quot; Mukherjee asked.
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In Andhra, no panchayat election has been held since 2003 because of a pending case on reservation in the Supreme Court. The state has cited the case to get funds for the schemes but after the death of Congress chief minister YSR Reddy in 2009, the funds did become an issue.
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Ramesh issued threats to Andhra Pradesh in public meetings while touring that state. &quot;But with the Congress being at the helm in the state again, MNREGS funds were not stopped both during the time of the Rosaiah and Kiran Kumar Reddy governments,&quot; said an Andhra official. Now on the basis of a Supreme court instruction, the panchayat election in Andhra is likely to be held by June.
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Late tonight, in reply to a text message query if the Andhra model was replicable in Bengal, Ramesh replied &quot;no&quot;.
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Earlier Ramesh was apprehensive about how much could the state utilise the central funds in the absence of panchayats. &quot;In the last fiscal, we had allotted Rs 4,000 crore under the MGNREGS to Bengal. In the current fiscal, we were planning to allot around Rs 5, 000 crore to Rs 7,000 crore. However, if panchayats cease to exist, we are uncertain as to how much of this funds would be utilised to employ the BPL people&quot;.
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