Mamata Banerjee's pet project comes under Centre's scanner

'Khadya Sathi' — one of the pet project of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee — is under the Central government's scanner. Under this project, rice is made available at Rs 2 per kg to the poor people of the state.

In a letter written on Tuesday by BK Gupta, director of the central food and supplies ministry, to West Bengal food and supplies secretary Manoj Kumar Agarwal, it has been stated that the Union government would carry out a survey whether the benefits had actually reached the grassroots.

Mamata had been touring different districts of late, and in most of the public meetings, she talked about the subsidised rice which the state was providing to over 90 per cent of the state's population, claiming that the state pays over Rs 20 as subsidy for every kilogram of rice.

Sources said that the Centre had claimed that it paid for 60 per cent of the subsidy amount. They added that the Centre would like to take stock of ground reality and at the same time prevent Mamata-led TMC government to reap all the political mileage ahead of the panchayat election. State BJP leaders had been trying to propagate that 'Khadya Sathi' was actually Centre's project.