West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has said that while she supported the Left ideology, she did not approve of the activities of the Left leaders in West Bengal.
Participating in the debate on the Governor's address, she said that what her government had achieved in less than a month of taking over was “unparalleled.”
“What we have done in these few days has never been done before nor will anyone be able to achieve this much ever after,” she said.
Ruing the fact that no one from the Opposition had thanked her for restraining her supporters from going overboard with their victory celebrations after the elections results, she said no one would be allowed to spread terror.
“Even our supporters are being killed. Everyone is the same in the eyes of the law. Any attack is deplorable. No one will be allowed to pick up a gun,” she said.
Reiterating her government's resolve to probe the Sainbari case — in which no action was taken despite indictments having been made — Ms. Banerjee said she had a mind to institute a few more inquiries into incidents like at Morichjhapi — where refugees from the erstwhile East Pakistan were given shelter.
Deploring the State's financial condition, she said that while it was known to be bad, no one could have believed that it was so precarious. “Funds will now have to be garnered and only my Finance Minister knows whether he can present a full budget within the requisite time or need to go for another vote-on-account.”
She thanked the people of Singur and said that she planned to hike farmers' allowances.
She also spoke on the proposed pact with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, saying she could show it to the Opposition leader if he so desired.
Opposition leader Surjyakanta Mishra said the Opposition would support positive people-oriented measures but oppose everything else. He said 16 Left supporters and party members had been killed in post-poll violence and he had already met the Chief Minister once in this respect. “We too had invited them for talks on several occasions but they never showed up,” he said.
Mr. Mishra, who was disrupted by the Treasury Benches several times during his speech, said that while the Left had got 41 per cent of the votes in the Assembly elections, the Trinamool-Congress alliance got 48 per cent. “The Left is here and will continue to be so.”
