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FOR a short while in the morning of March 23, the Reserve Bank suspended payments to the West Bengal government on the ground that the latter's overdraft had for a continuous period of seven days remained above the limit of Rs 187 crore prescribed for the state. While the state government was able to rectify the position quickly, it alleged that it had been put in the embarrassing situation of having payments to it stopped by the Reserve Bank because it had not received payments due to it from the Centre under various heads. According to the state government, such payments, due but not received from the Centre, amounted to as much as Rs 100 crore. Once these payments together with some others, were received, the West Bengal government claimed, it would be able to bring down its overdraft figure by the close of the 1983-84 financial year on March 31 to Rs 90 crore, at which level, as per an earlier understanding between the Centre and West Bengal, the overdraft would be liquidated with the help of a loan from the Centre. Since there have been no reports of further contretemps, it is to be presumed that West Bengal's claims in regard to the payments due to it were justified and the state was able to reduce its overdraft to the required level of Rs 90 crore by the close of the financial year 1983-84.