New Delhi: The Union education ministry has raised concerns over the West Bengal government’s use of funds meant for the Pradhan Mantri POSHAN scheme, which provides nutritious meals to school children.
The central government has asked the state to explain why the funds in the bank account for the scheme increased by 170.6 per cent in three months — from 31 March to 4 July this year — and why the same account was used to transfer funds for the state’s upcoming panchayat elections this year.
According to data from the education ministry, the PM POSHAN scheme covers all students, right from Bal Vatika to classes I to VIII in government and government-aided schools. It benefits about 12 crore children aged 5-11 years — this includes 22.6 lakh children in Bal Vatika, 7.2 crore children in primary classes, and 4.6 crore children in upper primary classes spread over 11.20 lakh schools across India.
In a letter addressed to the principal secretary of the department of education in the West Bengal government Friday, the ministry sought an immediate response on the financial irregularities.
The letter, seen by ThePrint, reads, “I am directed to refer to a copy of the account transfer transcript from the designated bank account of Mid Day Meal programme, Pashcim Bardhaman. A bare perusal of the fund transfer suggests that funds earmarked for the mid-day meal, under PM POSHAN, are being used for a different purpose. However, the papers made available over WhatsApp by state officials suggest that a dormant bank account has been used for the transfer of funds for state elections.”
The ministry of finance introduced the Public Finance Management System (PFMS) in March 2021. According to the directions of this new procedure, all centrally sponsored schemes (CSS), such as the mid-day meal scheme, are to be implemented by a Single Nodal Agency (SNA) having a Single Nodal Account in a scheduled commercial bank.
The Implementing Agencies (IAs)— district, block and levels below — are to use Zero Balance Accounts to draw funds from this SNA account.
This means that funds from all the previously held accounts by implementing agencies were to be closed down and the scheme’s funds were to be transferred to one sole account for CSS.
The letter also mentions that the West Bengal government, in an undertaking in January 2022, had certified that the state has set up its SNA for the PM POSHAN scheme.
“It was also certified that the entire unspent amount available in the bank account of all implementing agencies of the aforesaid scheme has been transferred to the single nodal account of the scheme concerned,” the letter read.
Meanwhile, the state is preparing an official response to the letter, but officials in the state’s education department told ThePrint that implementing agencies at the lower levels are still returning the unused funds and are working to integrate their system with the PFMS.
A state government official, on condition of anonymity, said, “ In West Bengal, the mapping of schools could only be done till the block development office level. There are still about 83,000 schools that have not been mapped as implementation agencies. We have already sent them letters and have been stressing the need for them to set up the SNAs to bring back the underutilised funds.”
As for using the PM POSHAN account for state elections, the official said, “The state transferred the required amount to the districts for the purpose of polling. This happened in the case of only Paschim Bardhaman district, and the account used was not the SNA-linked PM POSHAN account.”
Unexplained spike in funds
The central government in its letter stated that a verification of the SNA account at different intervals revealed that on 31 March, the total funds available in the account was Rs 1,542.17 crore, while as on 4 July, the account had a “huge and inexplicable” balance amount of Rs 4,174.28 crore.
The letter also said that, so far, the state treasury has only transferred an amount of Rs 387.35 crore.
In its letter, the Ministry of Education, flagging this spike in funds has said, “It is not clear as to how the balance in the SNA account has increased from Rs 1,542.17 crore to Rs 4,174.28 crore while the state government certified in January 2022 that entire unspent amount available in the bank account of all the implementing agencies has been transferred in the single nodal account (SNA). This appears to be a highly incongruous situation, more so, in the context of the state govt’s above said undertaking.”
Addressing the alleged spike in funds, the official said it is an outcome of these underutilised funds being sent back by the implementing agencies. The lack of mapping of a large number of schools led to unutilised funds becoming unaccounted\invisible in the system, the official explained.
“The return of funds from the lower-level implementing agencies is a sign of goodwill. This also indicates that there has been no pilferage or leakage of funds at any level and the unused funds are coming back to the state,” said the official.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)