The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal is facinga peculiar challenge in the state: the “cut money” controversy. “Cut money” isan illegal commission that TMC workers have been charging from people who wantto avail the benefits of State-run welfare schemes. According to reports, therewere “fixed rates” for specific programmes, ranging between Rs 200 to Rs25,000. Such demands by TMC workers have led to protests and clashes; thelatest one took place on Tuesday in North 24 Parganas where a local TMCleader’s house was attacked after “cut money” allegations surfaced against him.With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) making deep inroads into the state(evident from the Lok Sabha results) and civic polls due in 2020 and assemblyelections in 2021, chief minister Mamata Banerjee is obviously keen to quicklydouse the flames of discontent. Last month, she directed party workers toreturn the commissions to the beneficiaries.

The “cut money” controversy, however, is not just apolitical issue. It shows that despite improvements in the infrastructure ofservice delivery, many citizens, especially the poor, still face a challengewhen it comes to interacting with the State for acquiring basic and necessaryservices. This leaves them at the mercy of local officials and political agents.

There are two kinds of corruption when it comes to welfarefunds and development projects, a former Indian Administrative Officer told merecently. First, when contractors participate in the tendering process forgovernment projects, unscrupulous bureaucrats/local politicians ask them to adda certain amount of money to their cost. So it really doesn’t matter who winsthe state-mandated process — the cut money is always secure. In this way, theofficial process is not subverted, only tweaked to benefit a few.When it comesto welfare, wrong identification of beneficiaries (people close to the party inpower) or adding fictitious beneficiaries to the list is the modus operandi;the Bengal episode is a creative addition to the second one.

The impact of such malpractices goes far beyond monetaryloss to the beneficiaries — it hurts the nation’s economic well-being andgrowth. In her paper, Governance and Public Service Delivery in India,economist Farzana Afridi of International Growth Centre (IGC), Delhi, writesthat public theft raises the fiscal burden on the government, inflating thecosts of programmes, and the behaviour of public officials to hide the graftcan reduce the efficiency of the programme.