Author: Aloke Banerjee
Publication: The Times of India
Date: February 9, 2002
Imagine an income of Rs 2.27 crore
every year. Add to this at least six cars. Add a three-storey places at
a locality such as Alimuddin Street where land is priceless. And you begin
to get only a faint idea of the amount of wealth the CPM has. This has
been the amount shown by the West Bengal state committee of the party in
its report to the central committee for the last financial year.
But hold your breath. This is only
an insignificant fraction of the wealth that the CPM has amassed in the
last 24 years. The Rs 2-crore plus income is earned by only the state committee
of the party. Earnings of 18 district committees have not been included.
The fact that the state committee has earned this amount only from 5,000
party members as well as the handful of MLAS, MPs, ministers and former
legislators gives an indication of the amount of property the party has
in the districts.
You get a rough idea of the wealth
of the district committees when you consider that the bulk of the CPM's
2,27,000 members reside in the districts and their monthly contribution
goes directly to the coffers of the district committees.
Add to this the amount paid by the
elected party representatives in the zilia parishads, panchayat samitis,
gram panchayats and municipalities. Then include the large buildings that
all but two district committees have. And consider the buildings belonging
to the zonal, branch and even local committees. And the cars possessed
by the district units. The list goes on and on and you almost lose count.
But how has the party amassed such
a huge property? Charges of corruption are whispered as routine. But surprisingly
the amount mentioned above come from perfectly legal sources and do not
include those earned by unscrupulous means if such means are adopted at
all.
The 118 party MLAs give Rs 150 every
month. The 31 CPM ministers give Rs 500 each. The chief minister gives
another Rs 1,500. The 31 MPs contribute Rs 6,000 each, every month. Contribution,
known in the party as 'levy', is also collected from former MPs and MLAS.
These, together with the contribution of 5,000 party members under the
state committee, add up to a whopping Rs 2,27,53,830 a year.
But hold on. Only the Kolkata district
committee earns more than this amount. In fact, most of the district committees
earn more than the state committee. And, while the state committee possesses
only the Muzaffar Ahmed Bavan - the party headquarters at Alimuddin Street
- each district committee, except South 24-Parganas and Darjeeling, have
more than one house in their possession.
Yet the list remains incomplete.
It does not include for example Ganashakti which is the official mouthpiece
of the West Bengal state committee. Ganashakti is a private limited company.
There are several such companies whose assets cannot be included in the
official property list of the party.
