Less than two weeks after serving a virtual 15-day ultimatum to the Centre to grant West Bengal a moratorium for three years on interest payment on loans taken by the previous Left Front governments, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said here on Wednesday that the Centre “cannot deny its responsibility in the matter.”
Responding to a question if she was hopeful of New Delhi agreeing to the State's demand for financial restructuring of debts, she said: “I don't like being asked this question time and again. The people of Bengal are not beggars… we dislike doles.”
State of Bengal
“We aren't asking for a special package. It is their commitment and their promise. They [the Centre] have to do it. Our demand for moratorium is nothing new. It happened with Punjab in 2000. Is not Bengal a State? Is not Bengal's problem everyone's problem?” a visibly agitated Ms. Banerjee told reporters just hours before her departure for New Delhi.
Ms. Banerjee left for the Capital in the evening to attend the meeting of Chief Ministers convened by the Centre on the proposed National Counter-Terrorism Centre on May 5. She is likely to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi during her stay there.
Punjab was allowed a moratorium for six years between 2000 and 2006, Ms. Banerjee said.
“We are carrying a legacy of the huge debt burden from the previous Left Front government,” she said.
“They [the previous government] took loans from wherever they felt like. Why did the Centre allow them to do so? The Centre cannot deny its responsibility,” she said.
She said that prior to the elections the Prime Minister had assured her of help for the State to resolve its financial crisis. “We are trying for the last one year.”
Fiscal situation
Ms. Banerjee said she had also taken up the issue with Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee a number of times. She said she was grateful to the Planning Commission for correctly assessing the fiscal situation the State was facing. West Bengal had been identified by the 13th Finance Commission, along with Kerala and Punjab, as a debt-stressed State.
At a gathering of the State's civil service cadres on April 21, Ms. Banerjee had served a virtual ultimatum to the Centre, on the issue of West Bengal's persistent fiscal troubles, saying that she won't wait longer than 15 days for the settlement of the problem pending for the last 11 months.
“They [the Centre] are trying to make sure that this government cannot do its work. They are trying to sever our lifeline. While they aren't even allowing me moratoriums on loans, they have recently taken Rs. 1,500 crore of our dues by way of Central Sales Tax. I have waited for long, made many visits, but now I won't wait longer than fifteen days,” she said.
