Kolkata, Jun 23: West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday accused the previous Mamata Banerjee dispensation of paying more than Rs 324 crore to the FICCI for organising a business conclave, and indicated that the payment was made in violation of established norms.
Speaking in the Assembly during the discussion on the Governor’s Address, Adhikari displayed official files to back his allegations.
“Do you want to see what your leader has done? You speak so highly of BGBS. Rs 324.73 crore was given to FICCI,” Adhikari told the opposition bench.
The Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS), launched in 2015, had been one of Mamata Banerjee’s flagship initiatives to attract domestic and foreign investment to the state. Successive editions of the summit witnessed participation by leading industrialists, diplomats and business delegations from several countries.
“The Bengal Global Business Summit was organised by the government. The former finance minister… your former chief minister directly gave Rs 324.73 crore to FICCI. How was the money paid?” Adhikari said
The chief minister also showed documents bearing the signature of the former chief minister and claimed that the alleged irregularities were only a fraction of a much larger issue.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
Adhikari alleged that the state government had directly transferred Rs 324.73 crore to FICCI for a year, and questioned the manner in which the payment was made.
The chief minister, however, did not mention the year in which the alleged payment was made.
The allegations come days after Adhikari claimed that around Rs 635 crore had been spent on an event management company for organising editions of the BGBS during the previous government.
The chief minister said that a probe would be conducted into the expenditure and warned that legal action could follow if irregularities were found.
“If required, agencies that investigate financial embezzlement will be entrusted with the responsibility. Nobody will be spared,” Adhikari said.
He, however, did not name the event management company that allegedly received the funds.
Efforts by PTI to reach FICCI for comment did not fructify till the filing of this report.
