₹31K-cr CCL dispute: Paswan says his ministry has no role

CHANDIGARH: Union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday refrained from making any direct comment on settlement of accounts of Punjab of around ₹31,000 crore.

The amount, technically called Cash Credit Limit (CCL), has arisen due to non-adjustment of accounts for procurement of paddy and wheat that the state agencies have been doing for the Food Corporation of India (FCI) from 2003-04 onwards.

Punjab has repeatedly taken up the issue with the Centre. In the latest request, chief minister Amarinder Singh had taken up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his meeting with him on June 18.

Amarinder had requested Modi to intervene to settle the ₹31,000-crore cash credit limit (CCL) on account of the procurement of wheat and paddy, which was wrongly taken over by the previous SAD-BJP regime instead of being adjusted between the Centre and the state.

“The matter is being heard at the level of the Prime Minister and the Union finance minister,” said Paswan, in town to preside over the meeting of the Food Corporation of India regional offices of Punjab and Haryana.

When queried on Punjab’s long-pending demand to reimburse the amount, he told a press conference, “The matter is to resolved at the administrative not political level. This could not be resolved as it is a case pending since 2003-04. After that, at the top level, many officers have changed. At the level of my ministry, I hardly have any role to play in settling this issue.”

Punjab’s stand on the issue is that, “The state is facing an annual interest payment liability of ₹324 crore and the total pay-off may touch ₹65,000 crore, which is not tenable.”

› The matter is being heard at the level of the Prime Minister and the Union finance minister. At the level of my ministry, I hardly have any role in settling this issue.

RAM VILAS PASWAN, Union food and public distribution minister

‘MODI IS RUNNING BEST-EVER PRO-DALIT GOVT’

Paswan was all praise for the Modi government’s pro-dalit policies. “This NDA government is the best-ever pro-dalit government at the Centre,” he claimed. Referring to the Centre’s move to turn around the Supreme Court of India judgment which had diluted the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act and barred the immediate arrest of the accused, “This was a historical move,” the Union minister claimed.