‘State has utilisation certificates for expenses under Central funds’

MP | 7 Feb 2023 | Kolkata: Denying any misuse of Central funds, the state government has assured the Calcutta High Court that there are utilisation certificates for every expenditure to back its claims. 

A division bench of the High Court, comprising Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, was hearing a PIL filed by the BJP’s state general secretary Jagannath Chattopadhyay alleging that the Comptroller and Auditor General report (CAG) has stated misuse of Central funds to the tune of Rs 2.29 lakh crore by the state government in the absence of any utilisation certificate. West Bengal Advocate General (AG) S. N. Mukhopadhyay denied the allegations and informed the court that the CAG report referred to in the PIL, was presented in the state Assembly on March 17, 2022. 

The AG argued that since the matter is under the consideration of the state Assembly, it would be unfair to continue the hearing in this case. He further assured the court that there are utilisation certificates against every expenditure made from the Central funds and these will be submitted in the court in due time. 

It is learnt that the court has asked the state government to submit its points relating to this matter in the form of an affidavit. The next hearing on the matter has been scheduled on April 13. 

TMC leader Shashi Panja, on Monday, said that the BJP-led-Central government does not believe in the principle of cooperative federalism. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/state-has-utilisation-certificates-for-expenses-under-central-funds-507891